Oriole Park at Camden Yards Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Construction=== Prior to Camden Yards, the predominant design trend of big league ballparks was the symmetrical [[multi-purpose stadium]]. [[Memorial Stadium (Baltimore)|Memorial Stadium]], the Orioles' home since they moved from [[St. Louis]] in 1954, was an early example of such a design. In [[1984 NFL season|1984]], the [[Baltimore Colts relocation to Indianapolis|Baltimore Colts moved to Indianapolis]], in part because Baltimore and [[Maryland Government|Maryland officials]] refused to commit money for a replacement for Memorial Stadium. Not wanting to risk losing the Orioles and Baltimore's status as a [[Major League Baseball]] city, Baltimore and Maryland state officials immediately began planning a new park in order to keep them in town.<ref name="Storied">{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Curt|author-link=Curt Smith (author)|title=Storied Stadiums|url=https://archive.org/details/storiedstadiumsb00curt|url-access=registration|year=2001|publisher=Carroll & Graf|location=New York City|isbn=0-7867-1187-6}}</ref> The master plan was designed by international design firm RTKL. The stadium design was completed by the architectural firm HOK Sport, which had pioneered retro ballparks at the [[Minor League Baseball|Minor League]] level four years earlier with [[Sahlen Field|Pilot Field]] in [[Buffalo, New York]]. HOK Sport's original design was very similar to [[Guaranteed Rate Field|the new Comiskey Park]]. However, President & CEO Larry Lucchino, turned it down preferring an old fashion ballpark with modern amenities. Lucchino hired Janet Marie Smith, an architect and city planner, to represent the team as Orioles Senior Vice President to execute his vision. The Baltimore-based firm Ashton Design was brought on to the project to develop the signage, graphics, illustrations and logos that dot the stadium, as well as the 19th-century style clock above the scoreboard.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ashton-design.com/work/oriole-park-at-camden-yards/|title=Oriole Park at Camden Yards|date= 2018|website= Ashton Design|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-25}}</ref> Ashton's vintage designs, which echo the team's turn-of-the-century origins, proved influential, and the firm was called upon to complete similar retro redesigns of [[Fenway Park]] and [[Dodger Stadium]]. Construction began in 1989 and lasted 33 months. Former Orioles owner Eli Jacobs favored naming the new field ''Oriole Park'', while then-[[Governor of Maryland|Maryland Governor]] [[William Donald Schaefer]] favored ''Camden Yards''. After considerable debate, a compromise was reached and it was decided that both names were to be used, resulting in the stadium’s long name.<ref>Vanhooser, Cassandra M. "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3676/is_200504/ai_n13502222 Inside Camden Yards]." ''Southern Living''.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ghostsofbaltimore.org/2015/05/15/why-is-it-named-oriole-park-at-camden-yards/|title=Why Is It Named Oriole Park at Camden Yards?|last=Tom|date=2015-05-15|website=Ghosts of Baltimore|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-17}}</ref> The stadium has the longest name of all 30 MLB stadiums in terms of word count, with five words. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page