When flowers bloom in 2009, signaling the beginning of the Winston-Salem Warthogs' first season in the new downtown ballpark, people walking on Peters Creek Parkway will be able to look at what's inside -- the windups, strikeouts, home runs and all.
That's how developer Billy Prim and his architects want it.
"People can stand up here on the sidewalk and watch a game," said Michael West, a principal at architectural firm Calloway Johnson Moore West, pointing to architectural drawings of the ballpark.
"That's fine. Let them do it. We want them to come back and buy a ticket.… We don't want to enclose it. We want the public to know how much fun it is," West said yesterday.
His comments were made as a committee group of the Community Appearance Commission reviewed the design plans for the ballpark.
The committee members were supportive of the proposed designs, including the ballpark's open-air architecture.
But the committee members did raise several concerns, including one about a giant advertisement for Primo Water, a bottled-water company Prim started in 2004.
The advertisement wasn't mentioned last summer when Prim asked the Winston-Salem City Council to rezone the land for the ballpark, but the latest designs have a 38-foot-tall long-neck bottle of Primo Water standing on one of the stadium walls. As proposed, the top of the bottle would shoot up about six stories tall.
The display did not win support from some of the commission members -- or Pat Eisenbach, a Winston-Salem resident who attended the meeting.
"I was surprised that there would be this huge water bottle on a stadium that was partly funded by tax dollars.… It's just tacky," she said after the meeting.
Whether the ballpark has a giant bottle towering over Business 40 may end up being debated.
The bottle isn't allowed under the current sign ordinance. But neither are other, more traditional features of the stadium, such as proposed banners and lettering with the name of the ballpark -- "Sponsor Field," for example, which was shown in the drawings yesterday.
West said after the meeting that he would push to change the rules.
"We're not looking at that as signage. We're looking at that as an integral part of the architecture," West said.
The committee meeting was another step in the ballpark's development. The commission's approval of the architectural plans is a necessary step for Prim to get permits issued by the city.
The appearance commission is made up of 15 members appointed by the Winston-Salem City Council and Forsyth County commissioners.
The full commission is scheduled to discuss the project at its Jan. 23 public meeting.
The downtown ballpark is estimated to cost $22.6 million. Because most of that money will be borrowed, the overall cost, after factoring in interest over time, will be much higher. As a result, the city and county have agreed to spend nearly $38 million on the project.
Prim or his development company, Sports Menageries Corp., will be allowed to collect grants based on property-tax revenue that he generates on the larger project -- a 40-acre mixed-use development with stores, offices and residences -- to pay down the loan that he is getting to pay his portion of the ballpark.
While people walking by can see a game from Peters Creek Parkway, drivers on Business 40 will be able to see the field as well.
West said that the idea was to design something that would be fun, as well as reminiscent of old-time ballparks. That's why the decision was made to build the outside with brick.
Not only does the brick give it an old-time feel, West said, but it also coincides with the look of another Winston-Salem structure: the Brookstown Inn.
The current designs are similar to a rendering presented last summer, when Prim asked the city council to rezone the land, but they do not depict the same stadium that had been presented then.
"From the drawings … the plans appear to have become scaled back in that the stadium building appears more monolithic without the type of articulation shown in the original design," Lynda Schwan, a city-county planner, said in a report to the committee.
Missing in the current drawings are such features as a large plaza for walkers outside the stadium, where the ballpark's outer shell cones behind home plate. Gone from the walkways is the double-row of trees, now cut to just one row. The pronounced brick gables are no longer there.
The architecture, nonetheless, is still impressive, as it quickly won over the committee members. Some still asked that a canopy be built to visually connect the main section behind home plate and the main entrance near the outfield. West said that had been discussed at one time, but that cost was a factor.
Other concerns were raised about, for example, a planned gravel parking lot near Green Street and the main entrance of the ballpark. Some members said they were concerned that the gravel lot would generate dust and take away from the beauty of the overall project.
"We're here for appearance purposes, and that is going to be unsightly," said Joe Bircher, a committee member.
The project manager, Joe Bellissimo, said that the development group has bigger plans for the lot, though he did not give details.
"Keep in mind that this is temporary," Bellissimo said. "That's a very valuable piece of land that we don't want to just sit there as a parking lot."
■ Bertrand M. Gutierrez can be reached at 727-7283 or at bgutierrez@wsjournal.com.
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