Plans warmly received
Published 12:00 am Friday, August 13, 1999
Was that applause?.
Friday, August 13, 1999
Was that applause?
"We don’t always get that," said David Kane of Rochester’s Kane and Johnson Architects, Inc.
But from 30 or more citizens in the Ellis Middle School auditorium Thursday night, that’s the reaction Kane received after unveiling the now-$3.8 million vision of a restored Wescott Field complex.
Kane is the man who grew up a few blocks from Wescott Field.
When asked by a citizen if the six tennis courts were going to be restored or merely recoated, Kane answered "restored" to the tune of $8,000 a court. (Not to mention the addition of two new courts budgeted at $25,000 a piece.)
Then Kane revealed a bit of the personality of the man who wants to rebuild Wescott Field.
"I’ve played tennis in Austin for 35 years," he said. "I’m kind of partial to that."
Now that may sound as if Kane has invested too much of his own pride-and-joy into the project. But, the colorful Wescott Field plans Kane put on display were nothing like the my-way-or-the-highway stylings of Frank Lloyd Wright. Kane has clearly been at the mercy of the 3-year-old Wescott Field Committee.
"We’ve gone through 20 to 24 different ideas," Kane said. "We’ve gotten a great deal of feedback and input.
"What we have here is the master plan for Wescott Field. That doesn’t mean the design work is over."
But the citizens in attendance – it should be noted a good many of them were Wescott Field Committee members or one-time members – didn’t find too many faults with the design. They liked it, in fact. There was more than one "I-think-it’s-a-wonderful-design" comment.
Amy Baskin opened the meeting by stressing that it be informal, saying no microphones were needed.
"We’ve had Wescott Field all over the city, all over the county," she said. " … We’ve investigated every suggestion."
Baskin told of how the Wescott Field renovation project was born out of discussion about the need for a new track.
"Then soccer came to town," she said, and the discussion evolved even further. Three years of planning later and …
"We’ve got a place where people will approach and have a sense of ‘I’m somewhere. I know how to get where I’m going and I know where the stadium is,’ " said Kane, who mixed presentation with questions-and-answers.
The design is meant to provide "maximum flexible use of all fields," said Kane, who’s plotted four full-size football/soccer fields, two half fields and a state-of the-art track.
Because athletes and fans come from all directions and because parking will be on city streets, entrances have been boosted 500 percent, with two each proposed on the east and west sides and one each on the north and south ends.
Two Packer Plazas – ticket/concession/bathroom facilities – have been drawn in off the north and south end zones of the only field that will be off limits to the public – the stadium, or the competition football/soccer field.
The stadium’s west bleachers are in good repair, but the east are in need of restoration that would be "significantly less than a new set of cheap bleachers," Kane said. The restoration of the east bleachers will include the addition of new heated locker rooms to replace the ones underneath the stands, which will become cold storage. Inconsistent heating practices in the current locker rooms contributed greatly to the bleachers’ disrepair, Kane said.
With the two plazas, or gate buildings, the east entrance – the one everybody is familiar with – would no longer be the sole town square.
"It’s too many people in too tight a space," Kane said.
Athletes, coaches, fans and complex users would be able to get from one place to the next using a network of interconnecting walkways.
The parking issue was one the evening’s most talked-about issues. City councilman Dick Lang wondered if the excess traffic generated by the complex would make off-site parking an unsafe endeavor. Baskin offered partnering with Sterling Shopping Center and the Austin Medical Center West – both of which have extensive parking lots – as a potential solution. Kane said on-site parking would simply put the athletes too close to jeopardy.
Knowles Dougherty, a track-and-field connoisseur, suggested the track bleachers be moved in front of the finish line. "We could do that," Kane said.
One man liked the project, but was against the selected method of payment.
"I’ve had very poor experience with donations," he said. "A lot of people who benefit don’t pay for it. I’d like to see it on the tax rolls. If everybody uses it, everybody should pay for it.
"That’s probably a minority opinion."
But the majority seemed to approve of the Wescott Field plans, which go before the Austin Public Board of Education on Thursday.
If approved, it’ll be time to begin fundraising for a possible April 1, 2000 ground breaking.
The applause seemed to indicate that date just got a little bit closer.