High school football is a religious experience in the state of Texas. Any person visiting a small town on Friday night feels as if they have been transported to a post-apocalyptic world – not a soul is in sight and vacant businesses line the streets. The only sign of life is beaming from the lights down the road. Moving towards them, the visitor sees a stadium with overflowing stands and realizes the entire town is at the game. This event promotes community engagement and facilitates interaction between the town’s residents. On every other day of the year a high school football stadium offers very little benefit to the community as it stands empty and devoid of significance.
This scheme looks to inject energy and life into the stadium on days when there are no football games by taking advantage of the waterfront. The current relationship with the water in Marble Falls is mostly a private experience with few public properties accessing the water. To the west of the site lies two restaurants, a hotel and, just a little further, a park. This design offers a unique opportunity to develop a path along the water that begins at the existing park and extends to the site. The stadium’s field will then act as a public park in which the town’s residents can exercise, picnic, and play. With the two parks acting as bookends to the new path, the community can move between them, congregate, socialize and introduce energy into this area of town.
