A fateful intersection of current events and personal interest is allowing UO graduate student Brandon Grilc to live his academic focus.

In his personal life, Grilc is helping with an effort by private groups to raise $3 million by the end of summer, as part of the city of Eugene’s bid to purchase and preserve historic Civic Stadium. In the classroom, he is completing his master’s thesis on how American society has preserved Major League Baseball stadiums since 1876.          

“It is a great opportunity to mix my personal interests as a baseball fan and my newfound academic interest of preservation," Grilc said. "The opportunity posed itself for original research, and I ran with it.”

Grilc is a 2012 alumnus of the UO Oregon Leadership in Sustainability program and a second-year master's candidate in the university's Historic Preservation Program. He earned his undergraduate degree in sociology from University of California, San Diego, in 2010.

Grilc currently serves on the board of directors of Friends of Civic Stadium, a non-profit organization founded in 2009 and devoted to maintaining Eugene’s historic wooden ballpark.

The Eugene School District, which owns the stadium and its 10-acre property, recently evaluated three proposals to buy or lease the parcel – from the city of Eugene, Fred Meyer and the Eugene Family YMCA. The city of Eugene offered $4.5 million to preserve and renovate the Civic Stadium property as a multi-sport venue. The YMCA proposed $4.5 million to purchase the land, with a plan to design a new community center and housing development. Fred Meyer and developer Peter Powell from Bellevue, Wash., offered $5.25 million to create a shopping center anchored with a Fred Meyer.

Eugene School Board members voted 6-1 at a Feb. 19 meeting to accept the city's proposal. But Eugene's offer hinges on the ability of Friends of Civic Stadium and other groups to raise $3 million within six months – the end of summer – for renovation, maintenance and operation of the stadium.

Grilc's responsibilities with the grassroots Friends of Civic Stadium include community outreach, promotion, strategy, documentation of the effort and maintenance of the site. He said his academic interest in historic preservation has allowed him to help with decisions about the property's future and navigate the standards and regulations of historic preservation.

“It is giving me a great chance to apply what I have learned thus far in all of my academic disciplines and gives my research integrity, as I am living what I study and contributing to the field of knowledge,” Grilc said. “That is what’s most important to me.”

He described the correlation between his work with Friends of Civic Stadium and his thesis as a symbiotic relationship. Grilc’s understanding of national ballpark preservation offers him a holistic view, while his relationship with the Friends of Civic Stadium has given his research a purpose.

“I really hope to create an understanding and appreciation for baseball architecture regardless of the outcome, because these structures are more than utilitarian forms," Grilc said. "I hope to learn the realities of preservation – how we, as a society, really preserve and what needs to be done besides just acknowledging a building’s historic significance.”

- by Sarah MacKenzie, UO Office of Public Affairs Communications Intern