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Wednesday, November 19, 1997

Negotiations near completion for design of new baseball stadium

HOUSTON (AP) -- Members of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority began reviewing a $17.2 million contract Tuesday with Kansas City, Mo., architects for the design of a downtown retractable-roof baseball stadium.

Ric Campo, a board member for the authority who heads a subcommittee that is negotiating with Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, said the board will examine a framework for the contract. If approved, a final contract will be drawn up soon, he said.

"We're getting a good deal similar to or better than other architectural contracts around the country," Campo said.

A Dallas-based architect firm is being paid about $16 million for design work on a similar baseball stadium for the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Kansas City firm has designed ballparks in Baltimore, Cleveland, Denver and Chicago. The firm also designed the recently opened Bush Presidential Library in College Station.

Sports authority officials are still negotiating a guaranteed maximum cost with the Houston-based engineering firm of Brown & Root.

The sports authority has not decided what company will build the roof, which will be constructed separately, then placed atop the stadium.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan and Hirschfield Steel Co. of Irving each have bid about $30 million for the roof, board member Jim Jard said.

Mitsubishi, building Milwaukee's roof, has guaranteed the local price based on design work by Houston engineers Walter P. Moore, Jard said, while Hirschfield, favored by Brown & Root, has not.

Earl Santee of the Kansas City firm told the authority Community Relations/Fan Outreach Committee Monday that 28.7 percent of the remaining $9.6 million in architectural work will be performed by 13 minority- and women-owned firms.

Authority board member Howard Middleton said he wants a better idea of what percentage of the $17.2 million architectural contract will go to minority subcontractors.