Left Field wall 1934-1936

1934:


1935:


1936-1937:

Weird Fenway

First a brief status update. I've broken each of the main sections of the seating bowl into components: The LF pavilion, home plate grandstand, RF/HP connection, RF pavilion, and bleachers. I'm currently adding detail to each section until it's reasonably complete, and rotating around the part (adding seat section signs, ads, textures, concrete supports, etc). The RF pavilion and bleachers are complete, LF pavilion is getting there.

Now, here are some of the weirdest parts of Fenway I've come across, areas that have no logical reason for existing. In no particular order.

From 7.2.09 Fenway

Where: the junction of walkways surrounding Section 27 Instead of having the existing home plate grandstand section bisect a new LF seating for the 1934 renovations, they decided to jam the LF into the existing edge of the HP section, and this was the result. Of special note is the single seat wedged behind two walkways.

From 7.2.09 Fenway

Where: same

Notice how the walkway height is so dramatically different from the seating section to the right. Amazingly, there is no railing to keep people from tumbling down after tripping getting into their seats, but there is one if you pay more for the loge boxes.

From Fenway 6.19.09

Where: the connection between the CF and RF parts of the bleachers.

Nobody really ever bothered trying to come up with a unified number scheme for the bleachers, so in one walkway you have two rows on the same level.

From Fenway 6.19.09

Where: Dead center in the bleachers

This requires a bit of explanation. Given how the CF bleachers look at Fenway, you can walk up 20 rows of seats to find out that even though you are on the right side of the section (i.e. if you have seat number 4, it makes more sense to be by seat 1 than by seat 25), you are actually next to the Landsdowne St. wall, and have to walk all the way around and back up. This can get slightly annoying in the middle of the game.

From 7.2.09 Fenway

Where: LF junction, below GS section 27

This is remarkable for so many reasons. One, you have a row that sits in the middle of a walkway, and still costs upwards of $80. Two, the row is connected to 2x8 wood boards instead of, you know, concrete. Thirdly, we have the ridiculous layout of the concrete itself, visible here:

From 7.2.09 Fenway

Altogether, just an astonishing setup. I wouldn't be surprised to see this entire area redone this offseason, since this has clearly been messed up since the removals of the bullpens from the foul lines in 1939.

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of two of my favorite other entries in the park. One is the concourse portal to nowhere by first base, which appears to just dump you out in an unused, awkward walkway downstairs. And secondly, the single loge section down the LF line that has been built outwards from the concrete by a foot at a later date for no apparent reason.

More to come as update the park.

A Quick Update

Work begins on RF corner detail work.





Click to enlarge.

When Life Intervenes

The project hasn't been forgotten, just put on a temporary hold while I take care of a major drafting project at work. Once I've completed that to my satisfaction, it will be a dream to get back to Classic Fenway.

For the project itself, all supports are set for the park, and the last work completed was exterior work on the RF, then moving around the park clockwise from there.

Stay tuned.

LF Truss - Complete

LF Grandstand Roof Progress

The first rendered image in an awful long time, to see how the LF section is looking. In the process of building the truss work all around, but I have the LF truss placeholder up now, and some slightly more advanced seating elements.

22,000 Seats

Added 8,000 or so Loge seats, located the main posts for the entire seating bowl and redid the obstruction center lines, then removed any obstructing seats. I'm preppping the next task, which is building the 6, count 'em 6 different roof truss setups used in the park.

There's the left field grandstand setup from post-1934, the section 27 which is shifted a row down from the normal 3rd base grandstand due to it bridging the angles to LF, the main 3rd base truss, the modified home plate truss with deeper back supports, the first base line with rear posts around row 15, and the RF line stretching around the corner. I'm sure there'll be more, including the possibility of a different section 31 truss because of a strangely placed seat.

I updated my picasaweb account with pictures I took on Friday's rainout, and the gorgeous restarted game on Sunday. Most pictures deal with posts as that's what I was working on, but there's also a bit of Fenway weirdness I captured as well in section 14:



I don't think $50 goes as far as it used to. At Fenway, caveat emptor.

14,627 Seats

Give or take a few, just sat 14,627 grandstand seats into Virtual Fenway. After spending weeks trying to get an accurate idea of where to place the roof supports in relation to the seating bowl, it finally dawned on me that I should probably know where the seats are in the first place.

This, of course, raised a few more issues with seating placement. Problem one is in section 19 and 20 behind the plate, where the spacing doesn't quite work out the way I would like. Problem 2 is with section 11 in RF, where the post-1946 (I guess? Still trying to figure out the date) expansion of seating over Canvas Alley would leave 3' of extra space somehow. Problem 3 is with the first row of Grandstand 33 over by the monster. And Problem 4, figuring out what the grandstand was like before that weird GS 12 portal was covered.

But progress is progress. Next we're onto the Loge seats, which look substantially different than how they do today, when there were fewer aisles.

A Mystery

Updated post is below, but I'm searching for help on a part of Fenway I simply cannot figure out, and I would love to find some photos showing this actually existing. From the blueprints:




The portals down to the concourse are roughly highlighted in red, but there is one real outlier circled in yellow. There doesn't appear to be any concourse even near this part of the park, and I haven't been able to find any photos showing this even existing, however it has appeared in two different 1934 renovation blueprints.

Now, this could stem from a number of different situations. One, it was part of the 1934 renovations that simply weren't built, and just appeared on blueprints before being nixed. Second, this portal was part of the original 1912 park, but was filled in in 1934. Thirdly, it actually existed, and was filled in much later, in time with another renovation.

Option #3 would be the most interesting due to the new questions raised. Where did it go? When was it filled in? Are there concourses buried deep in the park that haven't been seen, or converted into storage?

Any photos, anecdotal evidence, and the like is deeply appreciated. Until I figure out what's going on, it's staying out of Vectorworks.

Sloooow going

These are rough locations of the infamous Fenway Park poles, along with their equally infamous sightline obstructions. I'm using photos of Fenway combined with the excellent Fenway Pole Finder book to determine exactly where you're getting screwed when you buy a ticket.

Once this is finalized, I try to make sense of the roof truss placement, and then the even more tedious job of building the horizontal and diagonal connections between the truss. We've firmly entered "this isn't fun" territory, but I'd hate to end up with a recreation of Fenway that can't even get the obstructions correct.

The marginally confounding issue with the truss placement deals with the roof being so heavily changed over the years. In the 80s when the roof boxes / press box / everything else were modified, virtually everything in front of the posts was rebuilt. And so we went from:


(thank you Ballparks, Stadiums and Arenas)

to:



So, they lopped everything off and dramatically shortened the roof in front of the post, so the people in the upper deck would have a chance to see anything within 50' of the stands all the way around. The renovation did have the added benefit of making Fenway look far less like an ancient double-A park, as you can see in any old photos of the roofline.

The best indicator of the difference in roof pitch is down the RF corner, where they never bothered to modify the roofline (at least, not since '34):



It was a pretty dramatic difference. So, when it comes time to move onto the current-day model of Fenway, there will be a fair bit of rebuilding to do. Until then, 1934 continues.