Just Build It Already

While the Dec 31 deadline for stadium financing ticks closer, the Washington Post has a look at the stadium design, spewing out a few more details of our precious precious.

The stadium, which will be along the Anacostia River in near Southeast, features an exterior wall largely made of glass and broken up by limestone portals... Aspects of the design create a translucent quality, offering fans inside views of the surrounding neighborhood and teasing those outside with glimpses of game activities....

[T]he ballpark will open to the northeast and afford views of the Capitol -- but only from a limited number of upper-deck seats and the press box.

It provides 78 luxury boxes in two stacked rows and 3,000 club seats between first base and third base, affording high-paying patrons prime views. Some of the club seats and a restaurant would be in the lower deck behind home plate.

Beyond the outfield, architects have placed another restaurant and a public walkway, designed to be open to the public even on days when there are no games.

Two cantilevered ramps leading to the upper decks contain viewing platforms from which fans can pause to take in sweeping scenes of the city -- the federal monuments to the north and the Anacostia River to the south.

Outside the stadium, a slender, angled building for offices, probably for the team, juts from the stadium from behind the home plate stands. Two large aboveground parking garages are situated to the north of the stadium.

Jack Evans seems to be the lone dissenter. He's quoted as saying that it looks like an office building, and that he much prefers the traditional brick exterior.

Just a thought.... does anyone care what the outside of the stadium looks like? Don't we really mostly care about the view inside the stadium and the panorama it provides?

The designs should be made public in the next few weeks. Then we'll get our crack at ripping it.