Field Trip: Petco Park

I'm in San Diego for Comic-Con -- so of course the very first thing I did was go to a Padres/Marlins game. Petco Park is a little different than your basic HOK/Populous design. Yes, it's got the basic hallmarks of today's retro/modern parks: circulating behind the seating areas, quirky outfield walls, private levels, split upper decks. But the first thing that jumps out at you is the white and buff palette. It fits with the clean, desert feel of being at the very bottom of California, making the park feel lighter and somehow smaller. Behind the scenes there are odd, vaguely South American touches: plantings that spill out over bridges and niches and sloping walls that wouldn't feel out of place in a ziggurat. It's subtle, and invisible from the field, but kind of cool -- it feels like someone had fun designing it. I like Citi Field, but it feels more self-conscious: The only place where there's a spirit of play is the center-field bridge. Petco is also ...