The fate of disposable public architecture
This is what Tulsa will do to City Hall in a year or two and in 20 years or so to the BOK Center and to the new downtown ballpark as well, assuming the current design concept is used:
RCA Dome, 1984-2008, rest in pieces.
Meanwhile, Wrigley Field, age 94, and Fenway Park, age 96, continue to delight fans and players alike.
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Evey other summer fore 15 years my family and I drove to Ohio from Tulsa to visit my parenrt. we went right by that rca baggy (refering to the dome material) and wondered what would happen if it were to deflate.
The baby boom generation seems to have no problem throwing history out the window in favor of newer structures with much shorter life spans. I for one see a social problem here. More and more institutions, buildings, even ideas are considered disposable. This leaves a society with little visible history and tradition. The result is more and more disconnection with the whole of our nation. New is not aleays better. Are now a nation of transients?
....no comment, except to say that signing in is now too complicated.
sayonara....
Nothing's changed on this end, Mr. Wormleigh.
Demolishing a 20 year old multi-use domed RCA Stadium is:
Idiotic and wasteful.
Abandoning a 30 year old perfectly functional Driller Stadium is likewise Idiotic and Wasteful.
The winner: Manhattan Construction Company.
They always win. They OWN our city government. Well, RENT-to-OWN anyway.
Well, rent on a short-term basis. Hourly rate?
The problem is unreasonable demands by pro franchises. OKC should have told the Thunder to go to hell. Take the Ford Center as is or go elsewhere.
Many of these franchises are little more than athletic hobos riding the rails to the next iconic public facility. That may be an overstatement but thats the attitude. First threaten the city you're in, then get another one in the public mindset as a future move in lover.
So much potential tradition lost because of greed.
...yes it has....your latest iteration doesn't work......
Things like the crystal cathedral, the phony lawsuit settlement, and the ballpark spend taxpayer money (about 100 million bucks) while providing zero benefit to the city at a time when fundamental problems that aren't being dealt with are causing population and business to locate in surrounding cities. I suspect the majority of Tulsa residents are not as historically oriented as you, and will not take as much notice of the historical aspect as you might like. But I hope they can understand how this diversion of money results in steady degradation of the quality of life in the city -- more crime, lower education quality, etc.
What Indy is doing with thier downtown & convention center makes sense... the RCA dome had outlived its usefulness, the rest of the attached convention space will stay intact. The dome itself was nothing more than a big inflated tent, and now that the supporting structure is gone they can expand thier convention space, which has been filled to capacity in recent years. Indy regularly has conventions that hit over 30,000 visitors.
across the street (the building in the upper left corner of the video) is their new stadium.
Indy built because there was a real need, Tulsa built hoping their would be a need...
here is an article explaining more:
http://www.indy.org/indianapolis/web/jsp/article/detail.jsp?c=11281161:static&p=1&x=1230061053372