About

The Switchyard of Region’s Field is an outdoor amenity upgrade on the 14th street side of the Baron’s Stadium. The program includes a new bocce court and games, custom shade structures, and two retro airstream trailers that serve as permanent food and beverage trucks. Of these elements, the shades presented the strongest opportunity for inventive architectural design. Their inspiration comes from an initial challenge faced when surveying the existing site. A handful of young saplings unfortunately needed to be removed to make room for the desired amenity upgrades. The design of the shades responded to this loss of natural landscape by mimicking the dappled canopy light that the trees would have provided given time to mature. The structure of the shades is itself an echo of a birch tree’s slender trunk, thin branching arms concealed above the hung “leaf” canopy. The attachment method of the canopies to their structure is purposefully obfuscated, giving the canopies a sense of movement and lightness. The buff chrome finish underneath the canopies references the sleek exterior of the airstream trailers, but also creates a subtle inverted illusion, mirroring the surrounding trees and multiplying the dappled shade pattern cast on the ground. At night, these reflective canopies come to life with colorful light cast from mounted fixtures below the iconic “Birmingham” sign some 20 feet above. The Switchyard is a beacon destination on warm nights enjoyed by Baron’s fans inside the stadium and street passersby alike.