Family Album

National Baseball Hall of Fame
By: Bob DiPaola

Standing high on a promontory — later to be called Mount Vision — overlooking Otsego Lake, William Cooper envisioned a settlement yet to be carved from the wilderness in 1785. That settlement would grow to be the regional center of commerce within a vast tract of unsettled land in Central New York State. Could he have possibly foreseen that the town that would bear his name would become all of that and, to millions of fans, the cradle of baseball?

For over 70 years, baseball has been synonymous with Cooperstown. Despite the occasional detractor's claim and even despite an 1816 Cooperstown law prohibiting the playing of baseball on the very street the Hall is located on, Cooperstown remains unassailable as the de facto Home of Baseball. Founded in 1939 the National Baseball Hall of Fame has been the guardian and repository for all things baseball. Each year, it is to this “Mecca” that nearly 400,000 baseball devotees from around the world make their pilgrimage to connect with the history, the heroes and the traditions of the game that has influenced our national culture since 1839. Our project at the Hall will enhance the experience and pleasure of future visitors for years to come.

To understand how this project will improve both the visitors' experience, as well as the facility, a look back at how the Hall's facility has evolved is necessary. 1939 saw a newly formed National Baseball Hall of Fame moving into an imposing 3-story, cut limestone building originally constructed in 1889. That same year, the first of many additions was added. As the success of the Hall grew so did the need for more space. Additions to the facility were constructed in 1949, 1957, 1978, 1988 and 1991, effectively filling the available space within a crowded village block. This quilt-like expansion, though providing more square footage, resulted in a facility which: (1) has less than ideal visitor circulation throughout, (2) has under utilized square footage and (3) has no facility-wide infrastructure systems. The McCarthy project, in addition to adding square footage, will resolve these issues.

Visitors will enter the building from a reconstructed exterior courtyard into a renovated foyer. The “wow” factor of the foyer will come from a new interior glass wall providing a sight line into the hallowed ground of the marble clad Hall of Fame Plaque Gallery. From the foyer, visitors will pass by the new ticketing area into an open, 3-story addition which will house two elevators and a curved grand staircase sweeping up to each of three levels. The stair atrium will serve as the starting point for visitor exploration of the galleries. Every existing gallery will be renovated with new finishes, museum lighting & exhibit casework. Much of the existing 3rd floor galleries suffer from low and steeply sloped ceilings caused by the existing hip and valley roof configuration. To cure this, we will be inserting a new structural steel framework through the roof down to the basement, which will frame a new roof at a higher elevation than the existing. After the removal of the existing roofing and its structure, there will be an increase in 3rd floor ceiling height and in 3rd floor square footage. The new roof will help visually unify six of the previous building additions. The improved facility circulation will allow the curatorial staff to reconfigure exhibits to better tell the story of baseball.

On the infrastructure side, there will be new facility-wide security, fire alarm, building automation, public address, telephone and data systems. Extensive improvements to the mechanical and electrical systems will yield improved temperature and humidity control, critical to the exhibit environment.

We face many challenges to making this a successful project. The most daunting will be to balance the phased construction effort with the paramount need to provide safe and continuous visitor access to the facility. Especially challenging will be work performed during July and August, the time when 200,000 of the 360,000 yearly visitors tour the Hall.

On December 31, 2004, McCarthy will complete its work and leave behind a much-improved Hall of Fame for the enjoyment of future visitors. I believe Mr. Cooper would approve.