San Diego Metropolitan - San Diego Scene

As project manager and lead Americans with Disabilities Act consultant for A Universal Approach, a division of the Access Center of San Diego, Louis Frick is helping plan the proposed Downtown ballpark. Since May 1999, Frick has been a member of the ballpark design team, working with the HOK architectural firm, members of the Padres organization and Kevin McGuire, another accessibility consultant from New York. He also leads the Accessibility Task Force that conducts public and private meetings to discuss ballpark accessibility issues.

“We have sought to make this, and I think it will be, the most accessible ballpark in the country,” Frick says. The task includes designing elevators, restrooms and various types of seating for people with disabilities — including wheelchair-and-companion seating, semi-ambulatory seating and removable arm rests. Frick also reviews plans for concessions, the grassy park area, ballpark area restaurants and pubs, and routes of travel like stairways, ramps, elevators and pathways. Parking is another issue of concern. “It’s tricky because parking is a joint responsibility of the city and the Padres,” he says. His goal is to provide handicapped spaces beyond the required percentages in a proposed parking structure across the street.

Frick brings nearly 20 years of experience to his work with the Padres. His career started in 1981 in the mobility affairs department of the Community Service Center for the Disabled (now the Access Center of San Diego). In 1984, he left to do consulting and work for the Registrar of Voters. He began leading disability awareness presentations for colleges, universities, and health care professionals throughout the United States and Australia.

In March 1999, the Access Center hired him back to launch A Universal Approach, a for-profit architectural consulting division that works with businesses looking to become fully inclusive. Although Frick graduated from UCSD with a bachelor’s degree in history, he says training with government entities like the Dept. of Justice and the Division of the State Architect, and courses in architecture and universal design, that gave him the skills necessary to do the job.

“Universal design seeks to make anything that is designed and built usable to the widest possible array of users,” Frick says. The idea extends beyond architecture to include landscaping, computers and adaptive devices. “It removes all barriers — those related to physical, mental, and cognitive abilities, visual and hearing impairments, language or age, for example — and cuts across all lines to increase an individual’s ability to function in life,” he adds. Frick uses a power wheelchair and says, “having a disability myself for about the last 25 years has inspired me to work in this career. It gives me insight that I wouldn’t otherwise have.”

When ballpark construction resumes, Frick expects to take on more task force meetings and visit the construction site to look at the specific areas of accessibly, like restrooms or seating, as they are being built. “At this point we’re largely on hold, but once I get word from (director of ballpark planning) Erik Judson, we’ll probably begin doing much more work.”