Janet Marie Smith

Janet Marie Smith (born December 13, 1957) is a Major League Baseball (MLB) executive, architect, and urban planner. Smith has built and managed renovations of several major and minor league baseball parks in the United States including Baltimore, Atlanta, Boston, and Los Angeles. She became one of the first women to hold an executive position with any Major League Baseball club when she was promoted to Vice President of Planning and Development with the Baltimore Orioles in 1989. Smith is best known for her work developing Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which set a new standard for ballparks "incorporating historic, old-fashioned ballpark architecture with state-of-the-art modern conveniences." Through her work, Smith has demonstrated how to seamlessly blend the best elements of the past with those of the future.

Other notable projects completed by Smith are the transformation of Olympic Stadium in Atlanta to the Braves' Turner Field and the renovation of Fenway Park in Boston—which gave new life to the oldest ballpark in the major leagues and included innovations such as the Green Monster Seats as well as the use of Jersey Street as an inside the park concourse.

Janet Marie Smith was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and graduated from Callaway High School in 1975. She earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Mississippi State University in 1981. In 1984, she obtained a master's degree in urban planning from the City College of New York. Smith is an associate member of the Urban Land Institute, the American Institute of Architects, and the American Planning Association.

Smith directed the design of Baltimore's Oriole Park at Camden Yards which marked a new era of Major League Baseball parks. Camden Yards was the first of the "Retro Ballparks," and was unique in that it honored many qualities of ballparks from the classic era ballparks like Fenway Park and Wrigley Field, but also incorporated modern elements and building techniques to improve the overall fan experience as well as the views.

Smith's work in major league baseball stadium design and renovation has influenced ballpark design since 1992. "Every ballpark built since Oriole Park’s opening owes some debt of its design to that park." Oriole Park became known as "the Baltimore ballpark that changed baseball." Janet Marie Smith's "fingerprints are all over baseball."

Starting in 1989 and continuing to date (July 2021), Smith oversaw multiple MLB stadium projects for the Baltimore Orioles, the Atlanta Braves, the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In 2019, Smith was named one of the "30 Most Powerful Women In Sports" by Adweek.

As of 2021, Smith is the Executive Vice President of Planning and Development with the Dodgers organization and has held since 2012. Smith completed her most recent project—working on Polar Park, the new Triple-A stadium in Worcester, Massachusetts which opened in May 2021.