Category: What’s On My Table?

Pendulum Launches New Web Interactive Project Feature!

Pendulum is pleased to announce a new website feature now live in our portfolio.  We are kicking things of with the multi-award wining Dunkin’ Donuts Park, home of the Hartford Yard Goats.

Visitors are welcome to drag their mouse or finger across their computer screen or smart device and rotate the digital model in a walking tour of the ballpark.  There are hot spots that can be clicked to launch enraged images and brief descriptions of featured areas.

Jonathan Cole, founding principal of Kansas City, MO based Pendulum stated “virtual reality and 3D visualization is an important part of our daily process from the very beginning stages of design.  We communicate the sometimes crazy ideas rolling around in our head in real time and in a human scale which in my mind is a great advantage over the historic use of scaled physical models.  Our clients no longer have to interpret our drawings because we are placing them in our models at every meeting, it’s an environment that feels very real.  This new web feature also allows us to engage the public/fan and experience the ballpark before they arrive at a game…they’ll know what to expect; we think that’s powerful.”

Click the rotating image above to launch our new interactive feature.  Stay tuned for upcoming announcements, more ballparks will be added.

Pendulum’s 2019 Design Journal Release

Every year for the last nine years Pendulum has completed a new or substantially renovated ballpark in addition to other civic and/or boutique projects.  In the last three years we’ve made a conscious effort to shift our focus from a traditional architectural delivery methodology to a process that encourages a curating of the built environment.

Most of our clients as well as the users of our buildings are heavily influenced by art, fashion, food, music, environment, and automobiles just to name a few.   The combination of these elements in interior and exterior spaces fosters enhanced user experiences.  There is a certain vibe that people are looking for when they attend events in or around our facilities.  Most people don’t spend much time thinking about why something is cool or why it feels right, but they immediately know when something is off, when the vibe is not authentic.

Our job as curators of the built environment is to design experiences that feel effortlessly appropriate and ahead of the curve.  This design journal exposes you to some of our triumphs as well as our process.  It is evidence that we not only talk the talk…we live it.

Pendulum Lifestyle Launch

Pendulum has always been about movement.  We firmly believe “design is change”, so we are passionately looking to perfect the things we do well and  improve upon areas we’ve fallen short.  We are constantly reinventing ourselves in search of the faster, stronger, smarter “us”.

Today we’ve launched a new section of our website dedicated to tracking the daily growth of our crew.   As designers, architects, and craftsman we tend to hide “the process” while exposing only the finished product.  In my opinion “the process” is where the really good stuff lives…so let’s celebrate the good stuff!

Click this link to check us out: The Pendulum Lifestyle

 

 

Pendulum’s 2017 Year In Sports

2017 marked a number of milestones for Pendulum.  We celebrated our 10 year anniversary, opened Jimmy John’s Field, and witnessed the incredible journey of the Hartford Yard Goats with the opening of Dunkin’ Donuts Park – the 2017 recipient of http://www.baseballparks.com “Ballpark of the Year” Award.

Pendulum also enjoyed a couple nice key wins on deck for 2019 and 2020.  following the opening of our Coastal Plains League (CPL) facility in Holly Springs Pendulum was awarded the role of Architect of Record for the Fuse District Multi-Use Complex in Gastonia, NC (also CPL).   The Fawley Bryant/Pendulum team won the design of the new Atlanta Braves spring training complex currently under construction in North Port, FL.

As we look ahead to 2018 we are in eager anticipation of opening two new Pendulum facilities, Willie Horton Field of Dreams for the Detroit Police Athletic League and Historic Luther Williams Field, home of the Macon Bacon (the absolute best team name ever – keep sizzling!).

Finally, at the 2017 Baseball Winter Meetings in Orlando we released our new Sports centric flip book/digital brochure that graphically highlights several of our aforementioned project milestones.  Check it out here: www.pendulumsport.com

The Pendulum keeps swinging….

Acknowledgements:

  • Dunkin’ Donuts Park Photo Credit – Robert Benson Photography
  • Our Clients – Thank you for encouraging us to keep taking chances and pushing the envelope.
  • Joe Mock, http://www.baseballparks.com – We’re still excited about the DDP award!
  • Our Peers & Competitors – Thanks for the fuel…
  • Pendulum Staff – Let’s get it!

Pendulum’s 10 Year Anniversary Countdown Day 01

May 18, 2017 marks Pendulum’s tenth year in business.  We’ll be adding an image of a featured built project each day for the next eighteen days as we march toward our official incorporation day.  We will then reveal our commemorative ten-year logo and other fun things along the way.

Day 01

Today’s featured project is a small restroom and storage building that we call “Rooftop Hospitality”.  Located in the Power & Light District of Kansas City, MO above Consentino’s Downtown Market garage, this project is one of our early built works that showcased our improvisational design skills.

In 2009 the City of Kansas City, MO desired to host events on the roof of the then new parking garage but were lacking restroom accommodations and therefore did not meet minimum public assembly requirements.  Although this project was inspired by modular studies that were in the early stages of research and development amongst our design staff, “Rooftop Hospitality” was built using conventional construction methodology.  Even so, we learned critical lessons that served as the foundation for concepts and ideas that we advanced and presented to clients ranging from government officials interested in disaster relief modules for Port Au Prince, Haiti to baseball team owners in search of economical infrastructure solutions.


Disaster Relief Prototype – Office/exam room

Ballpark Prefab Restroom

Cabana Suite Prototype

 

 

 

 

Jimmy John’s Field Update

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Spring is almost upon us and our ballpark projects scheduled to open this 2016 season are taking shape.  Jimmy John’s Field located in Utica, MI is small in size but loaded with amenities that rival most affiliated ballparks.  The list of features include:

  • Dugout suites (5)
  • Dugout level group seating (four top tables)
  • Premium home plate club/bar
  • Outdoor cabana suites (12)
  • Elevated concourse (2,000 seats)
  • Sky boxes (6)
  • Field level party pavilions (2)
  • Right field grass berm
  • Right field whiffle ball field
  • Left field VIP tent

Although it may sound cliche, it is clear from the video that there is not one bad seat in the entire ballpark – from every vantage point you will literally be right on top of the action.  We are in eager anticipation of opening day scheduled for May 30, 2016.  Stay tuned for our next update that will feature an interior design narrative by our lead designer Lauren Gripka.

Hartford, CT Planning & Zoning Commission Votes In Favor of Special Use Permit For DoNo Stadium

Pendulum/Newman Architects/SLAM Collaborative were selected by the City of Hartford, CT to design the proposed new Class AA Eastern League ballpark for the New Britain Rock Cats who intend to relocate to the proposed new Downtown North Hartford Development (DoNo) for the 2016 season.  After several weeks of testimony and revisions to satisfy conditions of approval the commission unanimously voted this evening in favor of granting a special use permit allowing the proposed stadium to proceed as designed at the intersection of Main and Trumbull.  The following images illustrate our progress with the stadium design to date.

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Aerial view at the corner of Trumbull and Windsor

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View at the corner of Main and Trumbull

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Main Street elevation at dusk

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Home plate entry view at the corner of Main and Pleasant

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Aerial view at the corner of Windsor and Pleasant

Opening 2015 – AutoZone Park Renovation – Memphis, TN

The Memphis Redbirds hosted an open house for the press today announcing renovations to AutoZone Park already under way.  The renovations will be completed for the 2015 season.  We are honored to have been selected by the City of Memphis, TN and the St. Louis Cardinals to lead the effort as Architect of Record and Interior Designer.

HOME PLATE 1

New Home Plate Premium Club

HOME PLATE 2 OPEN

Home Plate Premium Club – Open Air

RF CLOSED

New First Base Premium Billiards Club

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Renovated Premium Suite Interior

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Renovated Premium Suite Interior – Field Facing View

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New Outdoor Club Seating

LF BAR

New Left Field Berm & Bar

The “Chocolate Me” Pop-Up Cafe…revisited

A couple of years ago we were honored to make the acquaintance of Mr. Shane Evans, the illustrator of numerous award-winning books for children, including “Black Jack: The Ballad of Jack Johnson”, and “Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper’s Daughter”, winner of the Boston Globe – Horn Book Award.

Initially, we just sat down in the studio an vibed…we talked about our “instinctive travels”, life, love, design, music, art…etc.  I think we all quickly realized how small the world really is as it relates to our circle of friends and key influencers and ultimately how passionate we are about global entrepreneurship and philanthropy, in thought and practice.  Our conversation progressed from talking about our individual goals to thinking about how similar we are in our collaborative natures, which quickly lead us to conclude that we’ve got to work together on something meaningful.

At that time we had been working feverishly on R&D prototypes for disaster relief modules (which I refer to as our legos – see slide show below).  Devan had recently returned from his second trip to Port Au Prince, Haiti post earthquake and we were sharing some of the high and low points of our concepts based upon Devan’s intel from having boots on the ground.  Shane began sharing with us excerpts from a children’s book he had been illustrating in collaboration with his childhood friend Taye Diggs.  Shane described the book as a movement in two words…“Chocolate Me”.

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If you haven’t seen the book be sure to check it out at www.chocolatemetoo.com.  It’s a heartwarming journey of a child’s struggle with wanting to fit in until he realizes that there’s actually something “sweet” about our individual differences.  With that as our theme we started re-conceptualizing one of our “lego” modules as a pop-up cupcake stand/cafe aimed at fueling the movement and promoting the essence of “Chocolate Me”…the “sweet” that exists within all of us.

We look forward to continuing our journey with Mr. Evans…and if you happen upon one of our stands in downtown Kansas City, or Chicago, or Los Angeles, or New York, or wherever in the near future…be sure to stop, eat a cupcake, read the book, grab a T-Shirt, join the movement!

chocolate-me-book