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Preservationists want it saved; councilman urges demolition

Thursday, July 11, 2002

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The move to designate Mellon Arena as a city historic structure drew strong support yesterday from preservationists and architects, but thunderous opposition from city Councilman Sala Udin.

Leaders of Preservation Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, former Allegheny County Commissioner Bob Cranmer, architects William Sippel and James Kling from the firm that designed the arena in the 1950s, and other backers urged the Historic Review Commission to recommend historic status for the silver-domed building, formerly known as the Civic Arena.

They praised the arena, which opened in 1961 in the Lower Hill District, as "a technological and engineering marvel" and "the eighth wonder of the modern world," urging the city to make it historic and preserve it in some form rather than tear it down and build a new hockey arena nearby for the Penguins.

Only Udin, a lifelong Hill District resident, spoke against the nomination yesterday, but what he lacked in numbers he made up for in volume.

"The Civic Arena was a bad idea from day one," he said. "The Lower Hill was devastated by this project. We need to talk about the human destruction it caused."

He recalled the razing by city officials of the largely black neighborhood that stood in the late 1950s where the arena would be built. He said many Hill residents "oppose preservation of the arena and support new economic development on that site."

By demolishing the arena, he said, "We have an opportunity to heal, to some degree, a community whose bottom half was amputated."

The only way the building should be preserved, he said, is if it is taken apart and moved. "It's a dome on top of a concrete bowl," he said. "There's nothing unique about that."

He disputed contentions by preservation groups that the domed structure could be adapted for new uses, like a hotel, cultural museum, jazz venue, ethnic marketplace or restaurant.

He said Hill residents were "gearing up against preservation guerrillas and extremists. We intend to take back the Hill District and reconnect that [lower] part with the rest of the Hill. This battle, as it is shaping up, will cause divisiveness in the community."

He accused preservationists of trying to "organize Hill residents and co-opt them to win them over to this preservation idea."

Two other Hill District leaders, Elbert Hatley, former director of the Hill District Community Development Corp., and George Moses of the Hill District Consensus Group, didn't directly address the historic nomination but did say that Hill residents must be closely involved with any plan to reuse the arena or redevelop the site if the arena is demolished.

"The Civic Arena has a lot of meaning for [Hill District] people," Moses said. "It's a place where my parents got displaced."

Penguins owner Mario Lemieux is calling for the city, county and state to pay the lion's share of the cost of a new $225 million hockey arena, which he wants to go between Centre and Fifth avenues.

Lemieux has released a massive urban renewal plan calling for a hotel, housing, shops and restaurants on the area below Crawford Street, where the arena and its parking lots now stand.

Stephen Leeper, director of the city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority, is to release a financing plan for a new arena by the end of the month. County Chief Executive Jim Roddey said he doesn't think there is enough sales tax revenue in the Allegheny Regional Asset District, one potential source, to build a new arena.

John DeSantis, chairman of the Historic Review Commission, said the staff will make a recommendation Aug. 7 on the proposed historic nomination and the commission could vote then. The nomination would then move to the city Planning Commission for another recommendation, and then to City Council for a final decision.

If the arena is given official city historic status, it couldn't be torn down or have its exterior changed without approval from the Historic Review Commission, which rarely gives such approvals.

Sandra Brown, president of Preservation Pittsburgh, said the arena meets several of the city's criteria for historic buildings. It's technologically and architecturally significant, she said, because when it was completed in 1961, it featured the first and largest domed roof that could be opened to the air.

It's also been the site of significant historic cultural events, including performances by the Civic Light Opera and the Beatles in the 1960s and many basketball and hockey games, she said.

She said it also "represents the urban rebirth embodied in the first Pittsburgh Renaissance" and is linked to famous people in city history, including former Mayor David L. Lawrence, department store magnate Edgar Kaufmann and Lemieux, who is credited with saving the Penguins.