New Beginnings: A Look Back at the Transformation of Providence Park—and Ahead to New Projects
View projectFeb 28, 2020
When Allied Works takes the two-block walk from the firm’s Portland offices to Providence Park for the Portland Timbers’ home opener on March 1 to celebrate their 10th season in Major League Soccer, it will be a time of reflection, of appreciation, and of looking ahead to new opportunities and collaborations in the sporting realm.
Completed in June of 2019, Sunday’s match will begin the first full year of their transformation of the iconic stadium, the home of soccer in North America for the Timbers and Portland Thorns FC professional soccer sides. For Allied Works, every trip to the stadium remains insightful.
“I think it’s cool, all the stuff we learned from it, seeing people in it, seeing how people use it,” said Brad Cloepfil, founding principal at Allied Works. “That’s also what makes you want to do another one, because you learn something every time.”
As a longtime supporter of the team, the season-opener also will be about something much more basic for Cloepfil, and the rest of the dedicated fans that have filled Providence Park to capacity for every home game since 2011.
“All I care about is them winning,” grinned Cloepfil.
Winning is important, but focusing on where these achievements occur—the stage that inspires and amplifies the energy of the game, and affects the city, the supporters, the players alike—is what drives Cloepfil and his team when it comes to their stadium work.
“These things can be catalysts for a city,” Cloepfil said. “People always talk about stadiums being economic catalysts, but I think they are catalysts beyond that, for the energy and identity of a city.”
“I think when you make something amazing, and memorable, and powerful, and beautiful, it has a life beyond those two hours of the game,” added Cloepfil. “And I think that’s a huge challenge and responsibility of stadiums in cities these days—they have to be more. It’s the same with opera houses and theaters. This idea of almost 24-hour use—or certainly 16-hour-a-day use of these civic buildings—is becoming more and more of a conversation. And it’s a fascinating problem.”
In the case of Providence Park, Allied Works came into a situation where others had proposed options for expansion, but nothing really clicked. There were a number of limitations and obstacles for an iconic venue originally built in 1926, most notably, an extremely restricted existing footprint in the heart of the city. If an expansion were to make sense, it would have to add the right number of seats in the right way, and enhance its character well beyond the confines of game time.
It presented a complex but intriguing design equation for the firm. The fact that the construction schedule was sandwiched in and around two years’ worth of matches and training made for a quite the predicament. One of the biggest challenges was figuring out how to phase and proceed with the construction process, while allowing the teams to continue playing their home games at the stadium.
“First of all, we had to find a solution and what we could offer that someone else couldn’t.” said Cloepfil. “And one of those was finding a way to get the most seats on a very, very difficult site.”
Through research and design exploration, a critical breakthrough in the early concept process was the firm’s inspiration to build a near-vertical wall up and over the existing club seats and street-level concourse on the east side of the stadium.
This design concept fueled a series of technical and logistical achievements, functionally avoiding the loss of existing seats during the ongoing soccer seasons in 2018 and 2019. Aesthetically, operationally and theatrically, this development inspired a host of dramatic and intuitive features to the project, including a street-level public arcade under the new concourses that builds on the stadium’s welcoming appeal, and breathtaking sightlines from all levels of the new three-tiered structure.
“We came to the problem with totally fresh eyes,” said Chelsea Grassinger, a principal at Allied Works. “We weren’t encumbered with assumptions and expectations. Our approach was to do the research with those fresh eyes, and find a solution that others probably wouldn’t see or consider.”
It’s this research-intense, propositional and creative approach that drives Allied Works, a process that sees every project as a new challenge and opportunity, identifying and amplifying what is specific about the place.
“It’s very much about making a space that people want to be in, that they haven’t experienced before, that’s awe-inspiring and has an energy that you can’t get anywhere else.” Cloepfil said. “It just becomes a larger conversation of culture.”
As such, the resulting Providence Park design was focused on magnifying the theatrical excitement and intensity of the stadium by offering the feeling of being in the heart of the action, connected to both the game and the city.
By digging in and exploring possibilities and strategies through a uniquely propositional lens, Allied Works was able to find creative solutions to a complex project, while honoring and completing the vision of the original stadium design.
“We don’t come to projects with a style or expectations,” Grassinger said. “Even if it’s a museum project—it’s not dissimilar to the stadium where we come in completely unencumbered with what we think it should look like, or expectations of the architecture. It’s more about finding the experience. And that’s what’s so exciting about the stadium: not only knitting into the existing condition with the historic Providence Park building, but creating that experience from the sidewalk, to the concourse, to your seat at the stadium. And the architecture is built around that.”
With the arrival of Opening Day for Major League Soccer, and the NWSL season kicking off next month, there’s no doubt Timbers and Thorns FC fans are looking forward to the start of another campaign.
As supporters of the clubs both personally and professionally, Allied Works designers and staff can be counted among those eager to get the new season under way. And equally, the firm is ready to explore new possibilities for inspired stadium projects in the days ahead.
What: Portland Timbers 2020 season opener vs. Minnesota United FC
When: Sunday, March 1 – 4:30 p.m. PT
When Allied Works takes the two-block walk from the firm’s Portland offices to Providence Park for the Portland Timbers’ home opener on March 1 to celebrate their 10th season in Major League Soccer, it will be a time of reflection, of appreciation, and of looking ahead to new opportunities and collaborations in the sporting realm.
Completed in June of 2019, Sunday’s match will begin the first full year of their transformation of the iconic stadium, the home of soccer in North America for the Timbers and Portland Thorns FC professional soccer sides. For Allied Works, every trip to the stadium remains insightful.
“I think it’s cool, all the stuff we learned from it, seeing people in it, seeing how people use it,” said Brad Cloepfil, founding principal at Allied Works. “That’s also what makes you want to do another one, because you learn something every time.”
As a longtime supporter of the team, the season-opener also will be about something much more basic for Cloepfil, and the rest of the dedicated fans that have filled Providence Park to capacity for every home game since 2011.
“All I care about is them winning,” grinned Cloepfil.
Winning is important, but focusing on where these achievements occur—the stage that inspires and amplifies the energy of the game, and affects the city, the supporters, the players alike—is what drives Cloepfil and his team when it comes to their stadium work.
“These things can be catalysts for a city,” Cloepfil said. “People always talk about stadiums being economic catalysts, but I think they are catalysts beyond that, for the energy and identity of a city.”
“I think when you make something amazing, and memorable, and powerful, and beautiful, it has a life beyond those two hours of the game,” added Cloepfil. “And I think that’s a huge challenge and responsibility of stadiums in cities these days—they have to be more. It’s the same with opera houses and theaters. This idea of almost 24-hour use—or certainly 16-hour-a-day use of these civic buildings—is becoming more and more of a conversation. And it’s a fascinating problem.”
In the case of Providence Park, Allied Works came into a situation where others had proposed options for expansion, but nothing really clicked. There were a number of limitations and obstacles for an iconic venue originally built in 1926, most notably, an extremely restricted existing footprint in the heart of the city. If an expansion were to make sense, it would have to add the right number of seats in the right way, and enhance its character well beyond the confines of game time.
It presented a complex but intriguing design equation for the firm. The fact that the construction schedule was sandwiched in and around two years’ worth of matches and training made for a quite the predicament. One of the biggest challenges was figuring out how to phase and proceed with the construction process, while allowing the teams to continue playing their home games at the stadium.
“First of all, we had to find a solution and what we could offer that someone else couldn’t.” said Cloepfil. “And one of those was finding a way to get the most seats on a very, very difficult site.”
Through research and design exploration, a critical breakthrough in the early concept process was the firm’s inspiration to build a near-vertical wall up and over the existing club seats and street-level concourse on the east side of the stadium.
This design concept fueled a series of technical and logistical achievements, functionally avoiding the loss of existing seats during the ongoing soccer seasons in 2018 and 2019. Aesthetically, operationally and theatrically, this development inspired a host of dramatic and intuitive features to the project, including a street-level public arcade under the new concourses that builds on the stadium’s welcoming appeal, and breathtaking sightlines from all levels of the new three-tiered structure.
“We came to the problem with totally fresh eyes,” said Chelsea Grassinger, a principal at Allied Works. “We weren’t encumbered with assumptions and expectations. Our approach was to do the research with those fresh eyes, and find a solution that others probably wouldn’t see or consider.”
It’s this research-intense, propositional and creative approach that drives Allied Works, a process that sees every project as a new challenge and opportunity, identifying and amplifying what is specific about the place.
“It’s very much about making a space that people want to be in, that they haven’t experienced before, that’s awe-inspiring and has an energy that you can’t get anywhere else.” Cloepfil said. “It just becomes a larger conversation of culture.”
As such, the resulting Providence Park design was focused on magnifying the theatrical excitement and intensity of the stadium by offering the feeling of being in the heart of the action, connected to both the game and the city.
By digging in and exploring possibilities and strategies through a uniquely propositional lens, Allied Works was able to find creative solutions to a complex project, while honoring and completing the vision of the original stadium design.
“We don’t come to projects with a style or expectations,” Grassinger said. “Even if it’s a museum project—it’s not dissimilar to the stadium where we come in completely unencumbered with what we think it should look like, or expectations of the architecture. It’s more about finding the experience. And that’s what’s so exciting about the stadium: not only knitting into the existing condition with the historic Providence Park building, but creating that experience from the sidewalk, to the concourse, to your seat at the stadium. And the architecture is built around that.”
With the arrival of Opening Day for Major League Soccer, and the NWSL season kicking off next month, there’s no doubt Timbers and Thorns FC fans are looking forward to the start of another campaign.
As supporters of the clubs both personally and professionally, Allied Works designers and staff can be counted among those eager to get the new season under way. And equally, the firm is ready to explore new possibilities for inspired stadium projects in the days ahead.
What: Portland Timbers 2020 season opener vs. Minnesota United FC
When: Sunday, March 1 – 4:30 p.m. PT