Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and occasionally abbreviated in print and online as OPACY, is a Major League Baseball
(MLB) ballpark located in Baltimore, Maryland. Home to the Baltimore Orioles,
it is the first of the "retro" major league ballparks constructed
during the 1990s and early 2000s. It was completed in 1992 to replace Memorial
Stadium.
The park is
situated in downtown Baltimore, a few blocks west of Inner Harbor in the Camden
Yards Sports Complex. The Orioles celebrated the ballpark's 20th anniversary
during the 2012 season and launched the website CamdenYards20.com as part of
the celebration.[8] Historically, Oriole Park at Camden Yards is one
of several venues that have carried the "[Oriole Park]" name for
various Baltimore franchises over the years.
Prior to
Camden Yards, the predominant design trend of big league ballparks was the
symmetrical "multi-purpose stadium". Memorial Stadium, the Orioles'
home since they moved from St. Louis in 1954, was an early example of such a
design.
In 1984, the Baltimore
Colts moved to Indianapolis, in part because Baltimore and Maryland officials
refused to commit money for a replacement for Memorial Stadium. Not wanting to
risk losing the Orioles—and Baltimore's status as a major-league city in its
own right—city and state officials immediately began planning a new park in
order to keep them in town.
The park’s
design was very similar to the new Comiskey Park. However, at the urging of
architectural consultant Janet Marie Smith, the Orioles turned it down,
preferring a retro-style park. The Baltimore-based firm Ashton Design was
brought on to the project to develop the signage, graphics, illustrations and
logos that dot the stadium, as well as the 19th-century style clock above the
scoreboard. Ashton's vintage designs, which echo the team's turn-of-the-century
origins, proved influential, and the firm was called upon to complete similar
retro redesigns of Fenway Park and Dodger Stadium.
Construction
began in 1989, and lasted 33 months. Former Orioles owner Eli Jacobs favored
naming the new field Oriole Park, while then-Maryland Governor William
Donald Schaefer favored Camden Yards. After considerable debate a
compromise was reached to use both names.
