Coors Field is the ballpark credited, only partly hyperbolically, with saving downtown Denver. When the Colorado Rockies chose this site in 1991, the surrounding warehouse district was largely derelict. Coors Field opened April 26, 1995, and the Rockies drew 4.5 million fans that first season — a major league record that still stands.
The ballpark was designed in the retro-classic style pioneered by Baltimore's Camden Yards, with a brick exterior echoing the warehouse architecture nearby. The row of purple seats in the upper deck marks exactly one mile above sea level, 5,280 feet. At this altitude the air is thinner, and baseballs carry significantly farther than at sea level; Coors Field is one of the most hitter-friendly parks in baseball, shaping the Rockies' entire roster philosophy for decades.
The neighborhood that grew up around this ballpark in the late 1990s and 2000s transformed Denver's relationship with its downtown core, demonstrating that a sports venue anchored in an urban neighborhood rather than a suburban parking lot could revitalize an entire district.