Centennial Olympic Stadium / Turner Field

When officials with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games were looking for a venue to be used during the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, they came to realize that the Atlanta Braves baseball team was seeking to replace its 30-year-old home field, the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (which marked Heery’s first foray into sports design and construction) with a new ballpark. The organizations reached an agreement to combine their efforts to build a stadium that would work for both uses.

Heery, as part of the Atlanta Stadium Design Team (ASDT), provided design services on the Centennial Olympic Stadium. Following the 1996 Games, the stadium was converted into Turner Field, the pride of the Atlanta Braves. The Centennial Olympic Stadium was an 85,000-seat stadium that was used to host the memorable opening and closing ceremonies, as well as track and field events for the 1996 Games.

Preparing the now former Olympic Stadium to take life as Turner Field posed its own challenges. In the eight short months between the end of the Games and the beginning of the 1997 baseball season, nearly 40,000 seats had to be de-constructed and the oval world-class track and field had to take new form as a triangular major league baseball diamond.

Under an accelerated design and construction schedule, Heery, in joint venture with three other ASDT member firms, incorporated distinctive design features into the stadium, including grand staircases and open concourses overlooking Atlanta’s downtown skyline. The stadium also featured a plaza that paid homage to Olympic Games of the past. The 50,000-seat ballpark, which was completed in time for the season, offers fans an intimate ballpark setting with traditional features, such as breezeways and open concourses, brick archways and ornate end pieces. Turner Field spotlights former Braves standouts in a plaza called Monument Grove.