Here’s how Major League Soccer hopes to score big in Queens.
During a recent presentation at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Gregg Pasquarelli of SHoP Architects revealed the first designs for the $300 million, 25,000-seat soccer stadium that MLS wants to build for an expansion franchise in Flushing-Meadows Park.
His hour-long presentation was primarily about his firm’s design of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, but it briefly offered four preliminary renderings for the MLS stadium project that SHoP was hired to design in October.
The renderings show an open-air stadium that’s enclosed in a mesh design.
Rendering of the proposed stadium in Queens Flushing Meadow park. (
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Rendering of the proposed stadium in Queens Flushing Meadow park. (
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Rendering of the proposed stadium in Queens Flushing Meadow park. (
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“It’s all about making a new kind of stadium that has no walls — that’s completely open at all times,” Pasquarelli said.
The massive rooftop frame is shaped like a doughnut and hovers over the upper deck, but it still allows a scenic view of the nearby “Unisphere” and other local landmarks.
The stadium dimensions, as shown, could allow for the project to expand to 35,000 seats – which MLS has said is a possibility.
The entire presentation was captured on You Tube and later posted by the sports blog Nets Daily. Shortly after the Post inquired about the video today, it was pulled from the Internet.
Pasquarelli, referring to the stadium design, had told his audience this is “the project I’m not supposed to show [you].”
Mayor Bloomberg supports the MLS plan, but it faces staunch opposition from various community groups and local politicians — primarily because up to 13 acres of parkland would seized for the project and replaced elsewhere in the city.
Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates called the design a “nightmare” and “equivalent of parking three enormous aircraft carriers in the middle of a public park.”
“Now we know why MLS has been trying so hard to keep the renderings of the stadium out of the public eye,” said Croft.
But MLS President Mark Abbott insisted the “drawings do not represent what they stadium will look like.”
“In fact, we haven’t selected an architect yet and will not start the design process until we have an owner for the [new] club,” he said.
“This was simply a concept drawing that was done only to help determine the potential height and footprint. Any assertion that these drawings represent what a stadium will look like in Queens is wrong.”
MLS hired SHoP to handle the initial concept drawings, but the future owner of the planned Queens franchise would be responsible to hiring an architect – whether its SHoP or another firm – to design the final version.
MLS honchos say fielding a brand-new franchise on the eastern end of the park is a top priority. They hope to break ground by 2014 and have a team playing there by 2016.
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