The FRANKLIN FIELD STADIUM, UNIVERSITY of PENNSYLVANIA
DAY & KLAUDER, Architects
S
TADIA are built to accommodate sports, games and festivities of widely different character, such as baseball, football, tennis, track meets, prize fights, pageants, parades, etc. A structure, is usually designed with the specific purpose of accommodating one, several, or in rare instances, all games, but one may readily imagine that it cannot accommodate many of them ideally. The problem which usually confronts the designer of a college stadium is that it must accommodate first and foremost football; secondly track; and then baseball, and as many other college sports as possible.
In one instance, and one only, did the building committee decide that the structure was to accommodate but one game, football; and that was in the design of the Tale Bowl. Track is eliminated because of the lack of a 220- yard straightaway. At Pennsylvania one game takes on far greater significance than it does at Yale. The Penn Relay Races are renowned, and attract the finest athletes throughout the collegiate world.
These races have always been run on Pranklin Pield, the scene of many records, one of the very best of cinder tracks. It was decided, therefore, that the new Penn stadium should accommodate not only football but track and that it should quite appropriately enclose Franklin Field.
Franklin Field is located in the heart of West Philadelphia, next to the college buildings (not two miles away as in the case of the Yale Bowl, or across a river as Soldiers’ Field at Harvard), is flanked at one end by the Gymnasium, and on the other three sides by city streets, the whole tract being but six acres. Because of the proximity of the college buildings it was naturally thought that the exterior finish of the structureshould harmonize with the neighboring buildings.
One difficulty revealed itself at the outset,
namely, that of seat
ing 50,000 spectators (surely a liberal minimum considering the crowds who flock to great intercollegiate contests today), over such a small piece of ground. Two- and three-deck designs were experimented with and rejected on the grounds of excessive cost, and also because of the time limitation in construction. It was necessary to build the structure between the time of the relay races, during the last week in April, and the football contests early in October.
Hemmed in by these many limitations the problems have been solved in a truly admirable manner. Happily, the municipal authorities were willing to allow the structure to be built over the adjoining sidewalks on the two long sides, and over the entire street on the closed end, provided it was ar
GENERAL LAYOUT OF FRANKLIN FIELD STADIUM, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
DAY & KLAUDER, Architects
S
TADIA are built to accommodate sports, games and festivities of widely different character, such as baseball, football, tennis, track meets, prize fights, pageants, parades, etc. A structure, is usually designed with the specific purpose of accommodating one, several, or in rare instances, all games, but one may readily imagine that it cannot accommodate many of them ideally. The problem which usually confronts the designer of a college stadium is that it must accommodate first and foremost football; secondly track; and then baseball, and as many other college sports as possible.
In one instance, and one only, did the building committee decide that the structure was to accommodate but one game, football; and that was in the design of the Tale Bowl. Track is eliminated because of the lack of a 220- yard straightaway. At Pennsylvania one game takes on far greater significance than it does at Yale. The Penn Relay Races are renowned, and attract the finest athletes throughout the collegiate world.
These races have always been run on Pranklin Pield, the scene of many records, one of the very best of cinder tracks. It was decided, therefore, that the new Penn stadium should accommodate not only football but track and that it should quite appropriately enclose Franklin Field.
Franklin Field is located in the heart of West Philadelphia, next to the college buildings (not two miles away as in the case of the Yale Bowl, or across a river as Soldiers’ Field at Harvard), is flanked at one end by the Gymnasium, and on the other three sides by city streets, the whole tract being but six acres. Because of the proximity of the college buildings it was naturally thought that the exterior finish of the structureshould harmonize with the neighboring buildings.
One difficulty revealed itself at the outset,
namely, that of seat
ing 50,000 spectators (surely a liberal minimum considering the crowds who flock to great intercollegiate contests today), over such a small piece of ground. Two- and three-deck designs were experimented with and rejected on the grounds of excessive cost, and also because of the time limitation in construction. It was necessary to build the structure between the time of the relay races, during the last week in April, and the football contests early in October.
Hemmed in by these many limitations the problems have been solved in a truly admirable manner. Happily, the municipal authorities were willing to allow the structure to be built over the adjoining sidewalks on the two long sides, and over the entire street on the closed end, provided it was ar
GENERAL LAYOUT OF FRANKLIN FIELD STADIUM, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA