A repurposed Civic Arena, not preserved
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Not long after moving to town in the early '90s, I found out that "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" was made right here in Pittsburgh.
Before long, I was asking, on radio and in print, why the city wasn't more assertive in claiming its unique and stellar assets -- jaw-dropping natural beauty, inspiring architecture, and citizens like George Ferris and Fred Rogers.
To celebrate the fact that Mr. Rogers had made Pittsburgh his own neighborhood, and to honor him without embarrassing him, I proposed -- instead of a statue -- a small playground featuring the creatures and landmarks of the "Neighborhood." Hundreds e-mailed support, but as a mere writer I had nothing to do with ensuing events.
A decade or so later, just after the grand Mister Rogers memorial was dedicated, two prominent Pittsburghers commented to me, separately, on the North Shore landmark. One rejoiced, "We finally got the statue you always wanted!" and the other said, "Well, you didn't get the huge theme park you wanted, but at least there's a statue."
Huh?
Now the icon to be addressed is the Civic Arena. In the flurry of letters responding to last Monday's column on repurposing this 20th-century marvel, a couple of dissenting voices asserted that Pittsburgh doesn't need another concert venue and if there were any other viable use for the arena, it would already have been proposed.
When I relayed these objections to architect Rob Pfaffmann, who created the Reuse the Igloo campaign (reusetheigloo.org), he said the people leading this effort have purposefully declined to anoint any particular project: "When you start making proposals, you immediately get attacked."
No, I told him wryly, first your ideas get misrepresented, then they get attacked.
Case in point these days is the demolitionists' false claim that preservationists want the arena to be an enclosed concert space. They want anything but that, judging from the drawings being kicked around.
"Preservation" isn't an adequate term, as all that would be preserved of the Igloo is its glistening outer shell -- an echo of our past to serve as an open embrace of our future.
Preservation Pittsburgh held an "adaptive re-use design competition" last summer and received dozens of entries from around the country -- despite the lack of prize money. The entries selected for honors and display envision all sorts of possibilities spilling out from under a half-open dome -- offices, apartments, hotel, public park, ice rink, amphitheater, parking garage, grocery store and even a giant vertical greenhouse. (See them here.)
First Published February 14, 2011 12:00 am
