Can the Future Live Up to Its Glorious Past? : Del Mar’s Improved Grandstand Debuts Today--With Changes

They called it rickety and not up to code. They said it didn’t take care of the patron very well. Above all, they said, the racetrack’s grandstand was too small.

So they tore down old Del Mar, a county icon where thoroughbred racing became the sport of Hollywood stars.

The place to be seen--at least for seven late-summer weeks every year--was erected in 1937. The hillsides to the south and north of the seaside track laid unmolested in those days. They since have given way to progress: apartments, condominiums, strip malls.

The track itself marks its own foray into modern architecture today as the 53rd summer season opens with a new grandstand.

Gone is the western half of the original, single-deck, adobe structure. In its place is a three-deck grandstand of concrete and steel. The eastern half of the old grandstand remains, at least for this season. It is scheduled for demolition in September.

But even in the new stands, the old-time charm of the original, adobe edifice has not been totally lost. This time progress comes with a glimpse to the past.

Mario Kow, the project’s main architect, toured several California missions--including Mission San Diego and Mission San Juan Capistrano--before laying out plans for new Del Mar. Where better to study the Spanish architecture of centuries past that Del Mar’s original architects attempted to duplicate?

“We tried very hard to retain the ambience of Del Mar,” Kow said. “And I am very proud of the facility. It is one of the nicest tracks in the country as far as catering to the patron goes.”

Kow incorporated several features he gleaned both from his tour and from the original building, but he is most proud of one. Anchoring the eastern edge of the new structure is its single-most defining element, a mission-like bell tower with four arches reaching to a coned spire and topped off with a weather vane.

When construction, which will cost $80 million, is finished before the 1993 season, the steeple will be the western twin of two identical turrets designed to frame the parade path that will lead the horses from the paddock to the track.

It will be a marked departure from the horses’ current trail, which winds around the eastern edge of what remains of the old grandstand.

“The way it is now,” Kow said, “the patron actually loses sight of the horses. But next year, the horses will never go out of view.”

There also will be more vantage points from which to note a horse’s preparation once construction is completed and the paddock is moved closer to the main entrance. This is the last season during which the paddock will be on the eastern edge of the complex.

When it is moved, it will be in full view of several balconies on three levels of the grandstand’s backside.

The balconies also open to a vista of the Pacific Ocean. Kow said it was important to provide an outlook to the shoreline so patrons gain the perspective that Bing Crosby might have had when he crooned about the surf meeting the turf.

The balconies will serve several other purposes as well.

Architecturally, they break up the back of the structure so race goers, upon entering the gates, don’t see a solid, six-story wall.

“The main thing about the grandstand,” Kow said, “is it is not a huge, massive structure. We tried to scale down the size of the building (by lining it with balconies). That way, we could also give it more of a residential feel.”

In order to foster a neighborhood atmosphere, all the balconies have been kept relatively small. The hope, Kow said, is that the same feeling of intimacy that was present in the modest, original building will be rekindled in the new.

Perhaps the most-borrowed element from the California missions is the use of arches. They dominate the facility. Even the outside betting windows have been reshaped from narrow, rectangular glass panes to tall, arching openings.

But once the customer enters the grandstand, he leaves behind all of Kow’s efforts to bring the past into the present. The ground floor of the new building is more enclosed than its predecessor, creating what looks like a long exhibit hall.

Kow makes no excuses. Besides the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, his other boss is the 22nd District Agricultural Assn., lease-holder of the Del Mar Fair grounds, upon which the track sits. During the fair, the ground floor of the grandstand will serve as an exhibit hall.

Above is the first deck of the new grandstand. There is a second deck that has not been completed, and above that a terrace that houses the press box and sky boxes.

The changes in the seating area are so drastic that Bud Brubaker, the track’s director of operations, is bracing for several complaints from longtime ticket-holders.

Actually, he has been fielding gripes for quite a while now.

The old grandstand featured rows of six to seven seats. The new grandstand has extended the rows to 15 seats. Although everyone still wants an aisle seat, there are roughly half as many as before.

“What they don’t realize,” Brubaker said, “is that there also will be twice as many people in each row constantly getting up and coming back.”

But those extra people in each row won’t be all that blocks the view of those sitting behind the walkway of the first deck.

Seventeen posts support the second deck and terrace. That’s their intended function. An unintended function is that they significantly block the view of the track.

“That’s the one sacrifice we had to make,” Kow said. “We had to do it that way in order to support all the party boxes and press box on the roof. There was no other way to do it--the roof overhangs past the columns.”

Brubaker will be ready for the complaints with a simple request that ticket-holders bear with him through the construction.

If they don’t like their new seats, there’s really no place to move. Since work continues on the second deck and has yet to begin east of the clubhouse, the seating capacity actually will be reduced this year by 1,300 (last season, the grandstand seated 9,600). When all is done, the seating capacity will increase to 15,500.

But that’s a year away. So for now Brubaker must figure out how to fit more people into a smaller space.

He’s not worried.

“We’re going to run the first race about 10 minutes after 2 regardless of how upset someone might be,” he said. “And at the end of the day, about 6:30, we’ll run the last race and the first day will be over.

“The rest of the season will be a cinch after that.”