Lectures
Janet Marie Smith, John Spence, and Ann Marie Gardner
Atmospheres for Enjoyment: Sports, Resorts, and Weather of All Sorts
Join Fall 2019 Bass Fellow John Spence and Fall 2017 Bass Fellow Janet Marie Smith for a conversation moderated by Ann Marie Gardner on the topic of architecture and design for recreation and leisure.
Janet Marie Smith
Janet Marie Smith has served as the Dodgers’ senior vice president of planning and development since 2012. During that time, she has overseen the large-scale improvement and expansion projects at Dodger Stadium and Campo Las Palmas, the club’s home in the Dominican Republic.
Smith is best known for her work on Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which set the standard for a new wave of ballparks after its opening in 1992. 18 years later, Smith oversaw the renovations and expansion of the Orioles’ spring training facility in Sarasota, FL, and upgrades to Camden Yards for its 20th Anniversary. Smith has also served as senior vice president of planning and development for the Boston Red Sox, overseeing the preservation and expansion of Fenway Park, president of Turner Sports and Entertainment Development, managing the development of the Philips (now State Farm) Arena, and vice president of planning and development for the Atlanta Braves, helping to transform the 1996 Olympic Stadium into Turner Field.
Outside of baseball, Smith has worked on development projects including Battery Park City in New York, Pershing Square in LA, and renovations to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. She was also the Edward P. Bass Visiting Professor at Yale University School of Architecture during the fall of 2017.
In 2011, Smith was named to the Inaugural Class of the Sports Business Journal (SBJ) “Game Changers: Women in Sports Business.” She was a 2014 recipient of a Women of Inspiration Award from the LA chapter of Women in Sports & Events (WISE), SBJ’s “Power Player for Design and Development” in 2016, and in 2017, one of SBJ’s “Champion” award winners. She was honored by the Boston Baseball Writers in 2012 with a Special Achievement Award for her work at Fenway Park and was recognized by the Maryland Daily Record’s Top 100 Circle of Excellence in 2016. She has delivered commencement speeches at the University of Michigan’s School of Kinesiology and, her own Alma Mater, Mississippi State University.
John Spence
John Spence is Chairman of Karma Group, an award winning international travel and lifestyle brand offering luxury experiences and accommodation in the most beautiful locations. He taught at Yale as the Fall 2013 Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Architecture Fellow and returns this semester as Bass Fellow once more to teach an advanced design studio with Patrick Bellew, Henry Squire, and Timothy Newton.
Ann Marie Gardner
Ann Marie Gardner is an award-winning journalist, editor and media entrepreneur.
She has launched and edited game-changing multi-media brands including Modern Farmer, Monocle and T Travel, The New York Times Style Magazine. She writes about global trends in design, pop-culture, food, farming and weather for Monocle, The New York Times, WAPO, First Look Media, Four & Sons, Japanese Vogue and Kinfolk, among many others.
Gardner is currently building a media platform that explores a new model of storytelling around weather and the global climate crisis.
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