Red Sox seek approval to expand Fenway capacity by 10%

The Red Sox yesterday received preliminary approval from the Boston Landmarks Commission to expand Fenway Park's capacity by 10 percent, presenting the club's most specific designs yet on how it would add about 1,000 seats as well as extra standing room.

Although the ball club requested increasing Fenway's capacity from 36,298 to 39,928, the team's plans would not immediately use all the additional space.

The ball club also wants to expand the team's clubhouse and weight room by an addition that would be partly built on unused space between the Fenway Park faade and Van Ness Street. The design would also ease congestion by adding space behind grandstand seats along the first-base line, team officials said.

Red Sox officials hope this project can be completed in time for next season.

Then the club would add new seats and more standing room by the start of the 2006 season, said architect Janet Marie Smith, a Red Sox vice president.

Although the plan to add capacity requires additional approvals from the commission as well as other city agencies, it appeared to have the blessing of Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "It makes a lot of sense," Menino said of the conceptual design. "It accommodates fans while still retaining the historical significance of the ballpark."

Part of the current plan to add capacity calls for replacing the well-worn roofs of the corporate suites above the grandstand seats along the first- and third-base lines, Smith said.

As part of that renovation, the team proposes increasing the height of the park at those locations from 70 to 80 feet above street level, said Charles F. Izzo, president of D'Agostino Izzo Quirk of Somerville, the architectural firm for the project. The additional height would allow the team to expand four rows of roof-box seats into eight rows. The result of this proposed redesign would add about 1,000 seats as well as room for several hundred standing-room patrons.

There are no plans at this time to make any major changes to the Green Monster. "The Green Monster is pretty much sacred," Smith said.

Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com.