Whitaker Bank / Lexington Legends Ballpark

The Whitaker Bank Ballpark, home to the Lexington Legends, is a 6,000-seat facility designed for Single A Minor League Baseball. The facility includes club seating, private suites, and public concourse with washrooms and concessions, as well as space for administrative and club offices. A player’s clubhouse is integrated into the outfield wall along with a family picnic area along the left field fence and a dining grill with viewing area along the right field fence.

Developed on a vacant 18-acre site in downtown Lexington, Ky., the ballpark is adjacent to an existing shopping center which provides overflow parking. The site features were designed to minimize effects to the established surrounding neighborhoods. Through public meetings and door-to-door contacts, the majority of the neighborhood came out in strong support of the project. The Ballpark has become a valued part of the neighborhood.

Site work included a 1200-space parking lot, stormwater detention/quality systems and sanitary sewer detention in order to mitigate impacts to the older existing infrastructure. GRW was responsible for preliminary layout, assistance with the development plan preparation and design of all site work and utilities and required local and state permitting. GRW worked closely with the Lexington-Fayette Urban-County Government’s engineering staff to develop the most suitable solutions.

GRW worked in conjunction with Stadium Consultants International, Inc. who prepared the architectural plans for the stadium.

A major emphasis was to mitigate flooding problems on Broadway, a major artery, and commercial properties downstream of the site that had no storm water infrastructure in place. GRW designed two detention basins (6 ac-ft and 3 ac-ft) which included storm water quality components that mitigated the effects of the addition of impervious surfaces to the site.