BB&T Ballpark (Winston-Salem)

A few years ago, a Minor League Baseball team was formed in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Winston-Salem already had a team at the time, but a completely new image was needed. The team's name is now the Dash. A new stadium was built and named BB&T Ballpark and many new staff members were hired. In 2010, I was one of those new employees who got to see how the stadium was more than a field on which a team could play. I took this photograph before work one day because I had a few minutes to relax and realize the great qualities of the ballpark. It is clearly a beautiful, modern stadium, and the warm sunshine and cool shadows only make it nicer. These qualities make it an important symbol in the city. It seems as if nearly everyone in the area has been to the stadium for a game. There have been instances where local high school teams came to play their baseball games on the field. The Chicago White Sox even played on the field last year. Events like these bring the community together in one public space. It also keeps the youth out of trouble. Fans root together for the home team because they are proud of their city. Every day, I meet someone new because I greet hundreds of people per game. I get a fairly accurate understanding of the types of personalities that live around my family. Kevin Mattson discusses the importance of public space in his work, "Reclaiming and Remarking Public Space." He writes about how public space should be used to keep the community together and democratic. He believes this space in the community is to be used as a place where people interact with each other, and that is exactly what the Dash and BB&T Ballpark have accomplished. 


-Drew Lewis
3/22

Dr Henigman's welcome

Welcome to Dr. Henigman's and Dr. Connerley's GAMST 200 sections!

The Other Side of the Tracks

This photograph of the train tracks through campus was taken in the evening, on the south side of Mr. Chips, from the street. I took this photograph from my car, which is a perspective I rarely get on JMU (since I usually walk to campus from home). I chose the train tracks for a couple of reasons--like I-81, the train tracks seem to bisect the campus and serve purposes beyond and outside the work we're doing at JMU. And yet, somehow, the campus wouldn't be the same without them. (I also chose the tracks because I live close by, and the train whistles wake me up EVERY morning at 6 am--but I love trains and train travel--so I have very mixed feelings about them.) I'm not sure how campus designers integrated the campus around the tracks; I wish there were ways to improve passage around the tracks for students. It sometimes seems that CSX is at odds with the campus (especially given the large fines that accompany "trespassing" on the tracks, something that I do every day).

Freight rail is environmentally superior to tractor trailer shipping, so it makes me happy to see it. But I do think Greenberg's concerns about campuses that lack a center hold true for JMU, and the tracks do contribute to the divided feeling that the west side of campus has. I walk along these tracks every day, though, and I do wonder how many people really think about them--I haven't considered them seriously before I photographed them. (I do confess that I did once take a souvenir rock from the rail bed.)
--Dr. Connerley