Idea for Kinnick

[DunderMifflinHk]

When I was driving by Kinnick today I had an idea that would improve the area. Instead of houses across the street to the stadium to the south, wouldn't it be cool if there was a 3-4 story brick apartments like around Wrigley? They could call it Kinnickville. The bottom floor there could be a bar and maybe a hawkshop or other things and the top three floors could be apartments with balconies overlooking Melrose and Kinnick. It would look a lot better than those houses I would think. Someone with a lot of money needs to buy those lots and make it happen. What do you guys think?

 

[iahawk20]

Call me crazy but i sorta love the house scene on Melrose...it just one part of the atmosphere that is unique and that i love on a Kinnick Saturday. I get goose bumps every time i start making the trek up Melrose...dang football season cannot get here soon enough!

 

[ShadasRevenge]

When I was driving by Kinnick today I had an idea that would improve the area. Instead of houses across the street to the stadium to the south, wouldn't it be cool if there was a 3-4 story brick apartments like around Wrigley? They could call it Kinnickville. The bottom floor there could be a bar and maybe a hawkshop or other things and the top three floors could be apartments with balconies overlooking Melrose and Kinnick. It would look a lot better than those houses I would think. Someone with a lot of money needs to buy those lots and make it happen. What do you guys think?

Part of what makes Wrigleyville unique is the fact that is a neighborhood. It's not manufactured, and first time visitors to Wrigley (or at least I was) are somewhat amazed that everything they see on tv atually exists. Kinnick is somewhat the same way; and to try to change any of that would be a horrible idea.

 

[iahawk20]

Part of what makes Wrigleyville unique is the fact that is a neighborhood. It's not manufactured, and first time visitors to Wrigley (or at least I was) are somewhat amazed that everything they see on tv atually exists. Kinnick is somewhat the same way; and to try to change any of that would be a horrible idea.

agree...you just did a much better job of explaining it than i did, lol.

 

[DunderMifflinHk]

It wouldn't be a horrible idea. There's apartments all around that area. It would just be changing 3-4 houses into apartments. You could make the apartment so that they fit into the area. The houses i'm talking about are the nicest either.

 

[ShadasRevenge]

agree...you just did a much better job of explaining it than i did, lol.

They're aren't many places left like Kinnick/Wrigley/Fenway. Not that Kinnick has the large national appeal of either of those two places, but the settings are pretty similar.

It is odd to see that after years of building cookie cutter, multipurpose stadiums, that professional teams are building yards that blend into the area, and just seem to "fit" right.

 

[ShadasRevenge]

It would a horrible idea. There's apartments all around that area. It would just be changing 3-4 houses into apartments. There not the nicest houses either.

Still, why would you do it? The area around the stadium is what makes it unique, and is a big part of why so many people (myself included) enjoy the walk down Melrose. So what if they're not nice houses?

 

[iahawk20]

Still, why would you do it? The area around the stadium is what makes it unique, and is a big part of why so many people (myself included) enjoy the walk down Melrose. So what if they're not nice houses?

It would look odd having luxury condos/apartments or even remotely nice places across from Kinnick. Thankfully, this point is moot..it aint happening! The tailgating scene on Melrose is awesome, lets focus on something we have never heard of...like painting the water tower!

 

[ShadasRevenge]

It would look odd having luxury condos/apartments or even remotely nice places across from Kinnick. Thankfully, this point is moot..it aint happening! The tailgating scene on Melrose is awesome, lets focus on something we have never heard of...like painting the water tower!

Or painting the logo at midfield.

 

[DunderMifflinHk]

It would look odd having luxury condos/apartments or even remotely nice places across from Kinnick. Thankfully, this point is moot..it aint happening! The tailgating scene on Melrose is awesome, lets focus on something we have never heard of...like painting the water tower!

Who said anything about luxury apartments? I was thinking just a regular brick apartment that students live in. It wouldn't look odd at all. And i'm only talking about the 3 or 4 houses right across the street from Kinnick. It would not affect tailgating at all. It would just improve the immediate area around Kinnick.

 

[Igothawked]

It would be pretty cool to have a bar or two closer to the stadium and even a really nice Hawk shop over there. It would definately change the atmosphere a little bit though.
Unfortunately it will never happen. The university owns a lot of the properties across the street already. Primarily the apartment complex and the corner of Melrose Place and Melrose Ave. Any property that has the two foot chain fence around the yard is owned by the university. They bought up a lot of the properties over there in the hopes of someday expanding the hospital. While I was in school we lived at 8 Melrose Place. The university bought it the year before we moved in and we rented it from them. While we were there they put up the fences in order to deter us from making a slew of money on gamedays for parking.
They didn't put the fences up until after the Arizona State game in 03 (That day was insane on Melrose Place). We still did pretty good most weeks, but nothing like what we could have done had they not fenced off the yard.

 

[Hawke]

It's more likely that area will have an addition to the UIHC.

My idea is to increase the seating capacity of Kinnick by building the east side up. If they build a self-supporting structure that blends into Kinnick it wouldn't put any further load on the stadium. The new addition would have a tunnel at street level to keep Hawkins open.

 

[iveywk]

I'd imagine the only thing that you will eventually see south of Kinnick would be more hospital expansion. A good friend of mine used to own a home on Melrose Pl and when he moved out of town I'm pretty sure the university bought it (its been a few years but I think thats who ended up with it)

All of the houses with the little chain things across the front yard are already owned by the university.

 

[raspberrytea]

I'd imagine any changes will be for UIHC only. Seems unlikely that the university community would support a nearby bar. There is a portable hawk-shop there every gameday. Finally, I would not support further "Chicagoization" of Iowa City by replicating any architectural ambient of Wrigleyville.

 

[tomhawk80907]

When I was driving by Kinnick today I had an idea that would improve the area. Instead of houses across the street to the stadium to the south, wouldn't it be cool if there was a 3-4 story brick apartments like around Wrigley? They could call it Kinnickville. The bottom floor there could be a bar and maybe a hawkshop or other things and the top three floors could be apartments with balconies overlooking Melrose and Kinnick. It would look a lot better than those houses I would think. Someone with a lot of money needs to buy those lots and make it happen. What do you guys think?

Since I lived in one of those houses for three years, 77-79, I couldn't disagree more. For those too young to remember those were not very good years football wise. None-the-less we still partied and 807 Melrose was quite a location on six Saturdays in the fall.

 

[GoHawks24]

It's more likely that area will have an addition to the UIHC.

My idea is to increase the seating capacity of Kinnick by building the east side up. If they build a self-supporting structure that blends into Kinnick it wouldn't put any further load on the stadium. The new addition would have a tunnel at street level to keep Hawkins open.

I was just thinking about increasing the seating capacity like that the other night! A couple more BCS seasons and who knows. Especially with the demand there is for this upcoming season.

 

[EastLosRandy]

The hospital seems to be the key question here. UIHC will continue to grow, guaranteed, and IIRC it's a far bigger revenue source for the university than the football team. If Kirk succeeds in building Iowa into a perennial power, then our only hope for significantly higher stadium capacity would probably be a new Kinnick Stadium further out west. If we stay at the same level we've been at historically, (top 30 program with a couple of Big Ten championships per decade) then further stadium expansion is highly unlikely.