Talking to the Guy Who Designed the Marlins' Monstrous Stadium

The internet, as it is wont to do, has viciously mocked the Miami Marlins' half-billion dollar brand-new stadium, especially its straight-out-of-BASEketball home run sculpture and live aquarium behind home plate (rendered here). Who the hell came up with the idea for this stuff? Well, the designer’s name is Greg Sherlock, and he’s got a Masters of Architecture, which means he’s spent thousands of hours studying his craft, only to build a waaaacky art deco insane-making monument to the Marlins’ home runs. Listening to him talk about Sun Life Stadium, though, you get the sense that this park will be the first significant cultural establishment in Miami since… damn. Trying to think of a cultural establishment in Miami and coming up empty. Carl Hiaasen? Anyway, I called Greg up to get his perspective on the stadium he helped build.

VICE: First off, can you tell us what you do?
Greg Sherlock: I'm a principal at [design firm] Populous, and I’ve been with the firm for 15 years as a project designer. I'm involved for the most part in the front end; the rough and fuzzy things that transpire when buildings manifest from the beginning. I love what I do and quite frankly, I don't know if there's a building out there that gets more complex than a retractable roof, coupled with a wall that moves, and has to house 38,000 people at one particular moment. It's mind-boggling.

What were you trying to accomplish with the design?
To pick out a few directives, it's colorful and theatrical, to say the least. The life of the vegetation and especially the sunlight were also factors; the sky's so blue, the sun so crisp, and the shadows so distinct at different times that the sun actually drove a lot of the architecture in interesting ways. It's an unspoken, ever-present characteristic.

So weather is a factor. How structurally sound is this thing, in terms of like, hurricanes?
This building is designed to withstand major storms. It can handle over 150 mile-an-hour winds from any direction, and if a hurricane is coming, the retractable roof is even able to latch itself down mechanically.

So in the event of totally horrific global catastrophe, are we holing up in Marlins Park?
Yes. [laughs] Probably.

Can you tell us a bit about the décor that everyone’s been talking about?
The owner of the Marlins [Jeffrey Loria] is an art collector from New York. Part of his vision was to have the ballpark thought of as a museum and have the game itself looked at in the same way one might enjoy a ballet or any art form. Some of it has been privately funded, and there's a good dozen art pieces, including the backstop aquarium, which is an art piece in itself…

It's like Miami's own Green Monster, but instead, it’s filled with terrified live fish. Can you tell me more about the home run sculpture?
Red Grooms was the artist. When we originally conceived of the ballpark, we knew that there was an opportunity to do something special. He fit the bill and he came up with his piece. It's truly a celebration. It's lively, colorful, and it speaks directly to the city in [Grooms’s] language.

Yeah, but what do you think about it?
I think it's powerful. It's one of those things that's like walking into a contemporary art gallery. You're gonna get absorbed in it, and you're gonna sit there and think about it and maybe you’re gonna wonder about it forever. It's a piece of art.

It’s definitely a piece of work. How much did the whole project cost?
Five hundred and twenty-five million, including the four parking structures and everything within the stadium. When dealing with projects that are the ultimate marriages between private and public funds, I like to look at the other side: What would Miami be without its beaches? Or without the Dolphins, or the University of Miami? These are positive institutions paid for by hard-earned tax dollars. Sure, there are other institutions that need to be built up equally, but bold decisions must be made in order to decide where a city is going. Not to get carried away, but our price tag is quite a bargain compared to other cities. Miami stepped up to the plate, no pun intended.

@emersonyeah