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"I don't know if this proposal alone will do it, but if we start getting some momentum going, City Council might be forced to look at alternatives," said Murray Whisnant of Murray Whisnant Architects.
It was Whisnant who came up with the basics of a convention center arena plan, which calls for raising the arena bowl one floor above College Street (CL, "Arena Wars," September 11). Murray says this frees up sufficient space to house the necessary support spaces to serve the arena itself, thus answering critics who say is lacking in the available space. The arena bowl would splay out over the sidewalk on 4th and Trade Streets, and link directly into the overstreet walkway system, providing all-weather covered access. The plan also makes use of light rail, the bus transportation center, as well as plenty of vacant land for parking. However, the plan would also mean moving the upper tiers of seating inwards to cantilever several feet over the luxury skyboxes, and reducing some seating at the halfway line and adding it back at the end zones. Raising the whole arena bowl could also mean some problems in terms of circulation, requiring a greater number of people to use stairs, escalators and elevators.
But proponents believe the benefits of the plan far outweigh its shortcomings.
"This is a challenging program, and a difficult site," said CL columnist and UNC-Charlotte architecture professor David Walters, who helped come up with the design. "Traditionally, that's the kind of combination that great architecture is derived from. You don't get great architecture by just laying things out with no limits -- which is sort of what we're doing with Third Ward. So we may get a tremendous building out of resolving these difficulties in a creative manner. Hopefully City Council will at least look at this one more time before they commit absolutely to Third Ward."
City Councilmember Pat Mumford, who attended the recent workshop held by Walters and Whisnant, said, "Once the plan has been presented, I'm going to sort of gauge people's interest, and lead the charge from there."
Mumford admits that at this point, the old convention center plan is a long shot, but he still believes it's worth considering.
"The council has been dealing with this issue for a long time, and the policy right now is that the site has been selected and people are working on it. But we're certainly not at the point of no return. I think it's good idea to have an alternative site in our back pocket if for some reason Third Ward doesn't work out. I'm intrigued by convention center plan, and think it has enough merit to at least look at and see if it is a viable alternative."
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