Marlins Park - Features

Features

The Marlins' front office commissioned several works of art and other notable features around the stadium.

• Retractable Roof and Outfield Glass Panels: The retractable roof consists of 8,300 tons of steel. The Marlins covered it with a white membrane because "we want to make sure we’re not absorbing heat in the roof," said Claude Delorme, the Marlins’ executive vice president/ballpark development. Separate retractable glass panels offer uninterrupted views of the downtown Miami skyline, and also allow in a natural breeze when they are open. The six panels are a combined 240 feet long and 60 feet high. A mammoth air-conditioning system will cool the average temperature to a comfortable 75 °F (24 °C) with the roof and glass panels closed. The Marlins expect for the roof to be closed for about 70 of the 81 home games and likely to remain open on some dry nights in April, when the weather isn’t too hot. It takes approximately 14 and a half minutes to open the roof, and seven to eight minutes to open the transparent outfield panels.

• Home Run Feature: Center field has a home run feature akin to Citi Field's Home Run Apple but different in design and feel. The piece, designed by Red Grooms, is located behind the left center field wall, and visible during a game. It is between 65 feet (20 m) to 75 feet (23 m) tall, with bright pink, blue, aqua, and orange colors along with many moving parts. The art feature rises from a pool of Grooms-designed water and is dotted with clouds, flamingos, seagulls and palm trees. Marlins jump and laser lights shine for roughly 30 seconds. The home run feature was budgeted at $2.5 million with funding provided by the county's Art in Public Places department. The pricey sculpture sparked heated conversation among Miami-Dade taxpayers well before the park opened and has since continued. The Miami Herald reported that many fans thought it was "tacky" or "ugly," while others felt it captured the "essence of Miami." Marlins players wondered if the upcoming sculpture could cause a distraction to left handed batters. However, MLB officials have approved the batter's eye (after a separate area in dead center was repainted from fluorescent green to black) and, so far, the sculpture has not been an issue for hitters. The Herald held an unofficial contest to name the sculpture and selected the "Marlinator" as the winning submission from their readers.

• Aquatic Home Plate Backstop: Dual bulletproof aquariums serve as a home-plate backstop. They were built on each side of home plate and are positioned to prevent any disruption to players on the field. The aquarium to the right of home plate (when looking from the pitcher's mound) measures 34 feet (10 m) long, 36 inches (91 cm) high and holds over 600 US gallons (2,300 l) of seawater, while the aquarium to the left, is 24 feet (7.3 m) in length, holding 450 US gallons (1,700 l) of water. Each aquarium was constructed using a durable fiberglass structure; while crystal-clear acrylic panels 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) thick are used for the viewing windows that run the entire length of the aquariums. To safeguard the exhibits from impacts, Lexan was installed in front and in back of the acrylic panels to protect the aquarium from foul balls, errant pitches or any other unexpected contact.

• Clevelander Bar and Swimming Pool: The Clevelander is a South Beach-themed nightclub that takes its name from a 100-year old Miami institution. It holds approximately 240 guests, offers a variety of food selections, entertainment (dancers, DJs and body painting), field-level seating, and a swimming pool. The new poolside bar and grill is available on gamedays for private events for by groups, on a per-game basis.

• Bobblehead Museum: A display showcases hundreds of bobblehead dolls from all over baseball, jiggling in unison.

• Commemorative Marker: Daniel Arsham/Snarkitecture were commissioned to design a work to commemorate the former Miami Orange Bowl, which was demolished to make way for the new stadium. The piece uses the letters from the original "Miami Orange Bowl" sign as the basis for the 10-foot-tall (3.0 m) orange concrete letters rearranged across the east plaza so that they form new words as visitors move around them. They spell out both "ORANGE BOWL" and "GAME WON," for example.

• Parking Complex and Trolley Service: The stadium is surrounded by 4 main parking garages along with 6 other lots, with a combined capacity of about 5,600 vehicles. The garages extend the contemporary design of the park with walls of pastel, Miami-Deco tiles. Garages are conveniently color-coded with pennant banners to match its corresponding color quadrant of the stadium: blue for home plate, yellow for first base, red for third base, and green for center field. In addition to the main commemorative marker, three mosaic panels from the old Orange Bowl hang on the facade of the southwestern garage, and a few of the old bowl's plastic seats punctuate a small plaza in front of the parking structure, as a nod to the past. As final public art project, large scale bit-map paintings of children peering through a ballpark chainlink fence are being installed on the garages. Parking tickets are pre-purchased like seating tickets, raising the probability that parking spaces could be sold out even before game day. Due to the limited public transportion at Marlins Park, free trolleys shuttle fans to and from the downtown Miami civic center or a nearby train station on game days only.

• Entrance/West Plaza Paving: Pathways are paved on the west entrance plaza of the stadium are created by Venezuelan-born and Parisian-based, kinetic-op artist Carlos Cruz-Diez. It's entitled Chromatic Induction in a Double Frequency and uses tiny one-inch tiles to form a rhythmic pattern that perceptibly changes for visitors as they walk on it and at times almost seems to vibrate.

• Column Illumination: Daniel Arsham/Snarkitecture were also selected for the lighting of the four super columns which support the retractable roof. The lighting is designed to give the illusion of the columns being concealed and revealed through programmable LED lights that fade up and down the columns in subtly shifting patterns, evoking the rhythm of a human breath.

• Modern/Contemporary Artist Replicas: A large, ceramic-tile reproduction of a Joan Miró mural (1930's) is on a promenade wall behind home plate. A reprint of renowned pop culture artist Roy Lichtenstein's painting of "The Manager" (1962) is displayed near the main concourse. A nearly 40-foot reprint of Kenny Scharf's mixed media work "Play Ball!" (2011) is in a corner behind the team store.

• Sports & The Arts Graphics: In addition to other artwork, California-based consultant "Sports & The Arts" was retained to curate the photography and wall/column graphics components. Nearly 500 pieces of photography and over 15,000 square feet of wall/column treatments were planned.

• The back of the home run structure at Marlins Park

• A side view of the home run structure at Marlins Park

• One of the columns at Marlins Park that supports the roof when the roof is opened

• A copy of Roy Lichtenstein's "Baseball Manager"

• Baseball in Motion by Dominic Pangborn

• The home run structure in center field goes off after a home run