Eric Einhorn CEO & Lead Architect of Ball Parchitecture

Speaker 1: 0:31

Well, I'm Eric Einhorn. I'm the founder of Ballpark Architecture. We're a sports design firm. We're based locally here in Bethesda, maryland, but we do work nationally, so we're branded out of DC, but we basically provide sports design services for college, university athletic departments, professional sports organizations, developers or civic groups any sort of space planning or physical venue design needs they may have, be them stadiums, ballparks, arenas, team practice facilities, anything that deals with athlete development, or venues where we all go to watch games and we also. We work on other fixed seat environments, because I like to talk about our practice as sports and assembly. So venues such as concert halls, amphitheaters, performing arts centers, basically any type of space where you have fixed seating, there's an event happening and you're providing sight lines of visitors to that event. You're dealing with ingress and egress issues, concourses, restrooms, hospitality spaces, anything to do with venues or the training to perform within those venues.

Speaker 2: 1:53

That is very cool. How did you get started? Did you always want to do this when you were younger?

Speaker 1: 1:58

Yeah, I'm, you know, I guess one of those unique people that you know as a kid. You know some kids say crazy things of what they want to do. The time it sounded, looking back on it, pretty crazy. It's like I want to design stadiums when I grow up and I kind of figured out how to have a career that I didn't know really that existed or was a possibility and really it blends a lot of interests I had as a kid and now, where I was always interested in design, whether it was art or architecture Love sports, love playing sports, love following sports, going to and use like love being in spaces where large amounts of people gather. And then, you know, it's kind of that dork growing up that was excelled in math and physics and also statistics, always had an interest in statistics and branding and it's really all those passions and interests and things that sort of. You know I found my way into sports architecture.

Speaker 2: 3:01

I love that. Now, going back to your childhood, tell me about your life, growing up like with your family, where you lived all that good stuff.

Speaker 1: 3:10

Well, I grew up across the river in Rockville, maryland. I was born in Silver Spring. I am fifth generation Washingtonian, first generation born outside the district, and so my great-great-grandparents came to the area with my great-grandparents and my grandfather and they lived in Northwest DC in the Rittenhouse 14th Street area. My mom grew up there. The family moved to Silver Spring, like I said, grew up playing a lot of sports very close with family. That grandfather I mentioned, like those grandparents here, were a big influence on my life. Both of them my grandmother ran a small business as people did. It was actually my grandfather's accounting practice that she took over my grandfather.

Speaker 1: 4:02

Unfortunately, I only knew him in a wheelchair. He had MS he was diagnosed about when he was in his mid to late 40s and I mentioned he was a huge sports fan. He was the kind of guy that at holidays over my grandmother's house he always insisted if you know now they're the commanders. At the time they were the Washington Redskins, you know we would wheel out a TV into the dining room so we wouldn't miss a game, whether it was at Thanksgiving or Hanukkah or some other event celebrating my brother's birthday, which is during that time of year too. My brother's birthday, which is during that time of year too. So you know that passion of sports came through him, came through my father, and we used to, you know, attend local events with them a lot and for that, like I, one aspect of you know, our firm at Ballpark Architecture.

Speaker 1: 4:52

That aspect I've always paid attention to throughout my career is ADA accessibility design, and we've been over the last year or two pushing that out as its own service that we can provide people.

Speaker 1: 5:06

And that derives from the experience I had as a young child, sitting on my grandfather's lap in his wheelchair, where my dad pushed him through venues and through places like the aquarium in Baltimore, going to US Air Arena, as it was called, cap Center in Landover, maryland, and I saw what it was like to try and access buildings where you couldn't necessarily go through the front door because there were stairs or other barriers, and sometimes we'd have to go through loading docks or side doors or just, you know my dad muscling the chair up, pulling it backwards, and then, as I got older, my brother and I would fight over who could push the wheelchair.

Speaker 1: 5:47

And so I come to that experience. I always wanted to right those wrongs and that occurred just before ADA law, department of Justice guidelines for accessible design, and we, you know, at Ballpark Architecture, you know we focus on making that experience as seamless, creating barrier-free access, whether the project's focused on that or not, and we it's been, you know it's been something I've looked at a lot throughout my career in the venues. I've worked on over 80 facilities, over 50 campuses across the country. We're based locally here, but we do work all over the country. That's impressive, thank you.

Speaker 2: 6:29

Yeah, I really like and appreciate that perspective that you bring to the architecture world. A lot of people, I feel like oftentimes like people with certain disabilities are often overlooked or they don't have those spaces where they can go comfortably, and I feel like you're opening those doors by having had that experience growing up and providing people with this kind of accessibility to these events that they so want to go and enjoy, like I. Really I'm happy that somebody is out there thinking of that, because it gets overlooked sometimes. So that's amazing and thanks for bringing that to the design world.

Speaker 1: 7:13

And it's rewarding and it gets to see.

Speaker 1: 7:16

You know, I I think of my grandfather when I provide these spaces and when we used to go watch the Washington Bullets play and we were very limited in the seating we had in the bowl and I mentioned his love of the Washington Redskins, which got passed down and we never went to a game at RFK Stadium, which is now about to be demolished and maybe a new stadium goes on that site.

Speaker 1: 7:42

Maybe it's in Virginia, maybe it's in Maryland. That's still being worked through. But not only was the experience in some venues challenging, but we had to choose to not go to experiences and have those memories and places for events we love, because the venues weren't adequate enough. That's right, and with the last 30 years of ADA law and all that, that's changed but it's still not great. And one of the benefits to our practice ballpark architecture and when we can really focus on bringing the ADA aspect and accessibility not just up to code but making that experience great for people. You know, I think of just like you had a podcast episode a woman who's got a. I think it was a holistic practice and she talked about getting into it because her and her husband were always in the gym and all that.

Speaker 1: 8:41

And he got diagnosed with MS and there's challenges with their children. So you know it's people like that that I, you know I do this for and you know it's not about. I know you know some of the companies that also offer that they see that challenge as just code compliance. Yes, like you would with FireSafe or other aspects of a building that us, as architects, you know we need to deal with. But I approach those challenges as far as the experience of it.

Speaker 2: 9:13

I can see that for sure it comes through, especially with your stories and your experiences growing up and your grandfather not being able to attend. That for sure probably hits home for you. So I love that you offer that perspective to the architectural world there. And then can you tell me a little bit about marketing, like for your business, like what all are you guys doing?

Speaker 1: 9:33

So marketing as a small practice is certainly challenging, because most of my competitors within this space are large corporations that work nationally, that are amongst many cities across the country and have many market sectors. And with that comes the overhead of having people that are dedicated to PR, dedicated to marketing, dedicated to business development, dedicated to putting proposals together.

Speaker 2: 10:03

That's right.

Speaker 1: 10:04

And where ballpark architecture we're small network of associates. I bring on the projects as needed across the country and that includes both sports architects and former athletic or current athletic administrators or people that work on the venue side of buildings. But we have to attack that without all that overhead support. So for marketing, a lot of it comes down to just the relationships I've built with people over the years designing all these projects. The athletic business tends to be somewhat transient, where people work their way up through different athletic departments across the country and they move. Where I've worked with them on a football same expansion at school A. They'll reach out to me five years later, 10 years later, when their career evolves and now they're the athletic director at School B and they're signing a brand new basketball arena or there's a baseball development center being done.

Speaker 2: 11:10

And.

Speaker 1: 11:11

I cherish those relationships with those clients. But also in the field I'm working in, it's not just ballpark architecture. Typically working on these projects we partner with firms and we love working with firms that have great relationships with universities that have worked on the dining hall, that have worked on a dormitory, the science lab, the student union. They are trusted by the university facilities department to deliver projects. They know the aesthetic, they know how the reviews work, but they don't have that sports experience. But they know us from working on projects together in the past or maybe they found us on the internet through research or they've heard me talk at a conference and they'll engage us to be that boost, that firepower in the proposal and to bring that passion and experience and enthusiasm for sports design to their team to help win a project or develop and, you know, deliver the clients. You know spaces that work from an operational standpoint, from an experience standpoint.

Speaker 1: 12:20

You know from what's really important today, not just recruiting student athletes we used to be very concerned with I used to joke designing these projects for the 17-year-old high school student that may come to the university, to the 70-year-old donor who's donating the money to get these facilities built.

Speaker 1: 12:38

But especially in the last couple of years with NIL, with the transfer portal, at the collegiate athletic, and you're not just recruiting your student athletes from high school.

Speaker 1: 12:48

It's like every year you got to show the program's worth and value, to keep how you're going to develop these student athletes both on and off the field for careers within sports or careers in business, and what the 17-year-old might be looking at is different from what the 22-year-old graduate transfer coming into a program. And we're seeing even with the current NCAA basketball tournament. Now you're starting to see a shift between what, say, five, 10 years ago getting those athletes in, say, collegiate basketball that they called one andand-dones, those blue-chip stars that can really change your program, to what's happening now with the transfer portal. That you know, experience does matter. I feel like in all aspects of what we do whether it's me as a designer or an athlete on the field and sometimes experience and care can overcome things you know just talent, it's how you apply that talent, how you develop that talent, and that's, you know, part of what we do in our buildings is to help these university programs develop the talent and develop those individuals.

Speaker 2: 14:00

So like building those relationships with them, and also through word of mouth, it seems yeah, and then marketing, it's like.

Speaker 1: 14:06

We have a website, try and speak at conferences when we can, but you know we're. You know we're small and we're limited. We don't have. You know we've got budgets we got to adhere to. We have, you know, limits on time, because not only do I, as the founder, as the director of sports architecture and dealing with all our sports and assembly projects, you know I have to market, bring in work to the firm, but I also I'm the one doing the work. I don't pass this on to other people, like when you hire ballpark architecture, you're getting my experience, you're getting me dedicated on your project, and so we have to be limited on how many projects we chase in a year, because I have to be able to provide that value to all my clients. That's right.

Speaker 2: 14:56

Wow, have you ever thought, maybe like once? Obviously the budget gets bigger. Have you thought about bringing more people on board just to help you? I've thought On the marketing side, perhaps at least just to get your name out there and do like fun little videos. So you know how social media is like growing.

Speaker 1: 15:13

Yeah, I've thought about it and part of it is like I'm one of those people that as a kid I liked figuring out how to do those things on my own if I didn't have. And I'm sort of still that way. I do see the value and I've been to develop my career. I'm reaching out more. I'm taking classes on marketing and development. I develop my career. I'm reaching out more.

Speaker 1: 15:42

I'm taking classes on marketing and development. I recently took a weeks-long class in AI and how that can help small businesses and solopreneurs create content and compete against larger groups, how to do that quickly and how to ideate. But you know, it just makes me think of a story. You know, as a child my mom likes to tell how, oh, I wanted I don't know, I might have been in kindergarten or so and I wanted a camera. And you know I have a good imagination on that and how she said like I just, kind of like, built something on my own. It didn't work.

Speaker 1: 16:12

It was probably made out of a you know a dove soap box and old toilet paper roll and all this and I would walk around the neighborhood, but it's that you know.

Speaker 1: 16:15

Sometimes you know as you grow a business you do need to learn, and I learned this from running studios about delegating. I like being hands-on because I know there's value in that. But yes, as the practice grows and as I'm looking at our trajectory from where we were a few years ago and our plan from three, four years along, I know there are people both in the organization and outside to support the organization I need to bring on to keep the business going.

Speaker 2: 16:45

But when you're ready in that time of course yes. And then I'm going to ask you one last question here. If you could leave our listeners with any message or anything in your heart that you'd like to share, it can be in regards to your industry, life, sports what would that be?

Speaker 1: 17:04

That's a great question.

Speaker 1: 17:07

One thing I mean it applies to all just when people think about their career.

Speaker 1: 17:13

So less about my company and more about for people to, you know, enjoy and get the most out of their lives is, you know, take that chance and that opportunity to follow your passions. Remember a lesson from like my father, about talking about you, talking about not just having a job but wanting to have a career, and the difference between the two and what he does and opportunities. He turned down throughout his career because he's a solopreneur, he's an attorney, he has his own practice, he loves to litigate and he's developed his practice to be able to do the things he loves, developed his practice to be able to do the things he loves and having that opportunity to, not in the same field but develop that for myself, having worked in the corporate world, which I didn't have people within my family really that did that. Everyone has their own small businesses and it took me longer to be like okay, I'm at a point where I can put out my own flag and my own sign and attack this market sector.

Speaker 2: 18:17

Wow, it sounds like it definitely runs in the family. Yeah, it's like follow your passions.

Speaker 1: 18:21

I think when you do that, it doesn't feel like work.

Speaker 2: 18:24

Yes, that's a great piece of advice for anybody, in any industry. So thank you so much for your time and