After three years with HNTB, Labinski and several HNTB colleagues moved to the new Kansas City office of St. Louis-based HOK, forming HOK Sport in 1983 (later spun off after Labinski's retirement, and rebranded as Populous). Thirteen of fourteen of HNTB's sports clients followed Labinski to HOK.
At HOK Sport, Labinski was instrumental in moving the design of large sports stadiums from multi-purpose facilities to specialized venues optimized for single sports, with a strong sense of place. The most influential of these was Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, which incorporated existing buildings and framed views of the field's surroundings. With Labinski as HOK project principal and Joseph Spear as project architect, the Oriole Park project was derived from the design concept Labinski developed for Pilot Field in Buffalo, and integrated with a design concept developed by Orioles architect and planner Janet Marie Smith and RTKL Associates.
A first marriage ended in divorce. Labinski retired from active design work in 2000. He died January 1, 2023, of frontotemporal dementia at a care facility in Prairie Village, Kansas, at age 85.
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