Since this is close to being official, might as well get a thread going. Time to get the engines revving for another edition of stadium porn, folks. Will the Timbers add a roof to make an already loud environment even louder (@Mr. Warmth ), can we look forward to a grass field?? All will be revealed in the next few weeks!! http://www.stumptownfooty.com/2017/4/19/15364144/providence-park-expansion-plans-made-public But seriously, they are getting ready to publicly announce a $50 million renovation of Providence Park that will add a 100ft tall structure along the east side of the stadium. The structure will add a deck(or two) with 4,000 seats and a wall of luxury boxes. http://www.oregonlive.com/timbers/index.ssf/2017/03/merritt_paulson_portland_timbe_2.html There's some artistic drawings out there somewhere that will likely look nothing like the final product, but my googlefu is currently failing me.
A couple links for people, first, the discussion on the Timbers section of this site which gives the long history of us talking about it and all previous attempts of expansion. The latest stuff starts around here: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/expansion-of-jeld-wen-field.1903342/page-5#post-34772720 Second, a link from there, which is an application for design review hearing, and includes a bad scan of a rendering of the exterior view of the proposed renovations: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bds/article/633576 Based on the twitter ramblings of Merritt Paulson (in reply to the latest stumptown footy article), we may be getting some actual renderings officially released as soon as next week.
It looks like the 100ft is to the top of the roof, and the top of the structure (not including roof) would be something like 70ft up. That is higher than the top of the roof for the rest of the stadium. It is also interesting that their proposal will supposedly cantilever over the public right of way by 10ft. That's probably just over the sidewalk of the street, but still, interesting that they're doing that. It gives hopes that they might do something similar on other bounding streets in the future if this goes well.
Sorry, you have to go back to the way us older folk got porn: grainy poorly rendered pictures randomly found.
Wild stab, but they might be "replacing" the west stands with a simmilar structure in a handful of years.
That would be the hope. However, the road on the west side isn't level like the east side, so it'll be harder to do a cantilever type of design there.
Isn't the west side wider than the east side? It might not need to be cantilevered over the side walk?
For the stands themselves, yes, but there's very little concourse space on the west side, and it's likely they'd need the extra space for ramps up/down, if not the actual concourses themselves as well.
If we're talking a legit replacement, the lack of concourse space might not be an issue? It'll cost them seats in the lower bowl for sure but they'd be able to offset that with a slightly larger second deck?
Full replacement would likely require complete redo of the entire west AND north sides, since that is all one contiguous stand. My guess is that would probably not be able to be done in a single offseason. That would mean they'd probably have to find some kind of temp home. I don't particularly see that happening.
Beyond that, the north and west sides are the historic part of the stadium, and I think the Timbers would face a great deal of resistance if they tried to alter it in any substantial way. I mean honestly, there was a small uproar over the plan to tear down the Memorial Coliseum and that place is a dump (yes, yes, I know, it's a bowl in a glass box! It must be preserved!). I don't think it's impossible, but in my opinion it'll be decades before there will be a real possibility of change on that side of the stadium.
This "porn" Is just like surfing for grainy pics that downloaded 2 minutes at a time on a 8000 baud modem in the mid 90's.... Portland... We need your pornhub versión!
Gah! This is like getting ready to bust and then the camera zooms in on the guy's moaning face or a** and balls!
Oh, I know. I totally hated that when surfing for por . . . ummm . . . I mean . . . Wow! Was that what it was like?
I grew up in a rural area. We had to risk getting caught, and raid our parents' stashes if we wanted print porn.