The ground in front of the stadium, and around the stadium, is itself a stadium: the ground rises to become another stadium, a conglomeration of stadiums, a low-lying stadium that edges the stadium proper, pocket stadiums that fit into the spaces left over by the stadium proper.

Strips of pavement are raised off the ground, one after the other, each one higher than the other. The raised strips of pavement form bleachers. As the pavement leaves the ground, it’s replaced below by water.

The bleachers function as gates: segments of bleachers, at the bottom, are pivoted up to let people through. The bleachers function as seats facing different directions; there are platforms between one flight of stairs, one set of seats, and the next – the platforms make areas, walking-and-stopping-places, elevated above the ground. The bleachers function as a ground for landscape: trees, from ground-level, climb up the bleachers, as if rising up over a hill – channels of water meander like rivulets along the bleachers, zigzagging from one row to the next as if down a rocky hillside, and turning into waterfalls as they drop through to the pond below. The bleachers function as a light-source: the ponds, made from the displacement of the pavement, are lit from below – light shines up through the bleachers, it reflects off the bottom of the seats and glows onto the surrounding pavement.

The North Plaza is a curve of bleachers that completes the curved front wall of the stadium. At each end of the plaza, the bleachers start at the stadium wall; the bleachers extend, at a right angle, out from the wall, and then turn to form a curve in front of the grand stairway. As the bleachers curve around the front of the stadium, they branch off, inside the curve and outside, to occupy more land on the plaza. The detour of the bleachers forms squares of bleachers, like miniature stadiums. The lifting of the pavement, on all sides of a square, surrounds the square with water; the pavement that remains in the center of the water is shifted off to the side, and replaced by an island of colored light – you walk across the shifted pavement, over the water, and onto a glowing island. These islands might function, sometimes, as casual places, like beaches in the middle of water and waterfalls; at other times, they might function more formally, as little stages.

On the main concourse, at the top of the central stairway, the bleachers fill in the gaps between the tower and the edges of the stadium. At each end of the concourse, the bleachers extend out from the stadium edge, continuing the curve of the wall; they angle into the concourse, up to the entry-points to the stadium, and then turn again to curve into the concessions building, under the tower.

Around the corner, at the other end of the stadium, where the stadium meets the exhibition hall, the bleachers form a plaza between the two buildings and onto the street. The bleachers mirror the curved back wall of the stadium; they turn at the sidewalk, and run along the sidewalk, facing in toward the exhibition hall; they turn again, toward the exhibition hall, and run parallel to the exhibition hall, before turning again back to the street and then back again to the hall. This zigzag of bleachers makes little stadiums outside the stadium, and little plazas within the plaza.

Throughout this replicated stadium that functions as a landscape, throughout this landscape that functions as a secondary stadium, the bleachers lift to let people through. Sections of bleachers, that come down to gowned-level, are moveable; they can be pivoted up to make entrances. Some of these sections open only when there is a game; turnstiles are behind these bleachers; the bleachers open to let people through the turnstiles, at the beginning of a game. Some bleachers remain always open, when there isn’t a game, so that people can use the plaza as a public place; when there is a game, these bleachers are closed; they open again at the end of a game, to let people out.

You enter a game, or you enter the public space, under the lifted bleachers. You walk over water, you walk between waterfalls; you walk over a grating walkway on top of the water. Light shines up through the water beneath you; light reflects down from the bleachers above you.

The bleachers make a landscape to walk through, and sit on. You might sit facing away from the stadium, toward the city; this landscape is a stadium that you make use of on your own time. Where a section of bleachers, elevated above the ground, is pivoted in the opposite direction, you might sit toward the stadium – outside of the stadium but still a part of it -- you might sit face-to-face with other people. Light comes from below you, from under the water and up through the bleachers.