Updated Ballpark Hits a Home Run

For decades, the New York Mets have traveled to the beaches of sunny Florida for four weeks of spring training at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie. The aging ballpark, which is also home to the St. Lucie Mets minor league team and New York Mets minor league operations, was long overdue for an upgrade.

In 2019, the Mets enlisted architecture firm EwingCole to modernize the stadium and training facility, while keeping most of its existing bones. With a demanding timeline sandwiched in between 2019 and 2020 spring training, EwingCole’s team, including architect Scott Nixon, quickly got to work on the design.

“We began by programming and master planning the whole 100-acre campus,” says Nixon. “Where does it make sense to put additional practice fields, a new home clubhouse? Where does it make sense to put hitting tunnels, weight, and training rooms, all the different functions that need to happen for the convenience of players and coaches to train?”

FIVE-T-CO, the firm behind the Kennedy Space Center headquarters, and construction manager Barton Malow, also joined the project. “It was one extensive renovation. The existing stadium was mostly concrete with integral-colored CMU walls. It was very closed off; the concourses were very narrow which discouraged fans from experiencing the concourse and buying concessions,” FIVE-T-CO vice president Jud Tucker said.