From Olympic Venue to Baseball Field
Turner Field – Ahead of Its Time in Sustainability
It’s hard to believe that ten years has passed
since Atlanta was host to the world with the 1996 Centennial
Olympic Games! We see reminders of it everyday, when
we drive by the Olympic Torch. But some may not realize
that when they see a ball game at “The Ted” they
are seeing Olympic history there, too.
Centennial Olympic Stadium was built to house the track
and field events of the Olympics. But the long-range
plan for the structure was as a replacement baseball
stadium. The Centennial Olympic Stadium was designed
so that it could be partially demolished and retro-fitted
for use as a professional baseball stadium. The
new stadium was built upon the parking lot for the older
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium; the plan called for the
old stadium to be demolished after the Olympics to create
a new parking lot.
Most people weren’t familiar with the term sustainability
at that time. But Turner Properties actively sought out
a more sustainable plan for the conversion of the Olympic
Stadium into Turner Field. Ecos Environmental Design
was brought on the project team because of their commitment
to sustainable design.
In order to find a more sustainable solution to the
planning and design of the public spaces, including the
stadium, public plaza and parking lot, Ecos looked into
several modifications to the original master plan. Working
with the Olympic Stadium design team to identify footings
and infrastructure that could be reused during the stadium
conversion, Ecos recommended that the concrete from the
seating trays being removed from the Olympic Stadium
be recycled on-site for base material.
The original master plan called for the old baseball
stadium, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, to be demolished.
The site would then be graded to a single surface elevation,
requiring close to 300,000 cubic yards of fill. Ecos
recommended that almost two-thirds of the large concrete
retaining wall that supported the aging stadium be retained,
thus eliminating the need for the fill. Concrete
from the demolition was salvaged and recycled into base
under the paving proposed for the old stadium site. Other
sustainable savings included reuse of an existing stormwater
sewer system that once drained the ball field for use
in the portion of the new parking area within the old
structural retaining wall.
The conversion of the Centennial Olympic Stadium into
Turner Field began right after the Paralympics ended
in September 1996 and was completed in time for the Atlanta
Braves opening game of the 1997 baseball season – just
seven months later! Throughout the construction, Ecos
was on-site to assist in fast-tracked conversion. Ecos
designed the
public plaza to include the bronze sculptures that once
surrounded the Atlanta –Fulton County Stadium and
placed them in a new memorial grove centered in the plaza.
Since that time, sustainability has become much more
mainstream than it was when Turner Field was envisioned.
The people at Ecos pride themselves on incorporating
sustainability into all of their projects and are proud
to have been a part of this cutting-edge environmentally
sustainable project.
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