November 23, 2022
Pendulum is honored to share that our Downtown Kansas City Royals ballpark village concept has been awarded a Rethinking The Future (@rthinkingfuture) 2022 Architecture, Construction & Design Award for Sports & Recreation.
The Small Big Idea
With the development and growth of downtown Kansas City in recent years the “what if” question pops up often as it relates to the possibility of the Kansas City Royals moving downtown. In late 2019 Pendulum CEO Jonathan O’Neil Cole challenged the Pendulum staff to dream a little and answer the question “what if” with an expert analysis of existing surface lots in an area of downtown Kansas City known as East Village.
“Pendulum designs sports anchored campuses across the nation, the latest being Cool Today Park, the spring training home of the Atlanta Braves located in North Port, Florida . The potential of the Royals moving downtown has been the elephant in the room for quite some time, a very uncomfortable conversation that not very many people wanted to have in the past. I saw the opportunity to explore the idea being just several blocks from our headquarters, it was a great team building exercise,” said Cole.
On January 30, 2020 Pendulum made our unsanctioned response to “what if” public with the statement: “The ballpark of the future will engage the community.” From our perspective and professional experience a ballpark village should create opportunities for community development beyond baseball. It should be a hub of commerce and pedestrian activity. While passionate feedback from both sides of the debate ensued, the future from Royals stakeholder perspectives had been quiet.
Moving Forward
On November 15, 2022 Kansas City Royals Chairman and CEO John Sherman issued an open letter to Kansas City that made his thoughts on the subject very clear. In his letter Mr. Sherman issued conceptual images of a vision for downtown Kanas City that reinforced a number of Pendulum’s initial thoughts – a proof in concept that we were on the right rack. As the conversation continues we look to the future with optimism and, we will continue to influence a narrative of progress and community advancement. As the old adage goes, “people hate change but love progress.”
Many thanks to Rethinking The Future and the Jury Panel for their hard work and consideration. It is humbling and an absolute honor to be recognized by our international design peers.
#pendulumhadtheanswer
The Pendulum Ballpark Village Concept in the News
RTF Awards Invites Architects and Interior Designers from across the world to submit their built/concept projects
“Rethinking The Future Awards program aims to bring exceptional works in the field of Architecture the prestige they deserve. The objective of these awards is to raise awareness around the strategies Architects and Designers are employing to deal with the contemporary global challenges, and to bring the best of such projects into the light to inspire the next generation”
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