I’m intrigued by an article in the Pittsburgh City Paper (found here) that suggests that Mellon arena, the soon to be abandoned home of the Pittsburgh Penguins, should be saved rather than demolished.
It is quite a thought-provoking article. My hesitation to jump on the bandwagon promoting the preservation of Mellon Arena stems from my opinion that there should be some sort of consensus about what the space occupied by Mellon Arena should be used for before there is a decision made about whether to demolish it or not.
If it’s true that converting the building into another use might be cheaper than the demolition bill, then that’s great. But unless there’s a plan for the future of the space, attempts to build a consensus to save the building seem premature.
That leaves me with the question: What do residents of Pittsburgh want in the space currently occupied by Mellon Arena?
A hotel and restaurant / jazz club? A indoor/outdoor marketplace? A concert venue? All suggested in the Pittsburgh City Paper article, but none particularly appealing to me.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Diane Cipa, General Manager, The Closing Specialists® // Jan 17, 2007 at 9:56 am
I’d like it to remain a concert venue but adding some shops and eateries would be nice. Clean the place up.
2 PHD // Jan 17, 2007 at 12:39 pm
I think shops and eateries would be great but I wonder how keeping the stadium a concert venue would impact the deal with the Penguins for a new stadium. Won’t the Penguins /city want the new stadium to be a concert venue?
3 pix // Jan 21, 2008 at 12:17 pm
…tear it down. Why would the Penguins care when they cried and got a new arena? A concert venue? Why do you think Starlake was built…between the city and county having their hands out to the concert promoters, it was cost effective to move the concerts to Washington County. Shops and eateries? Sure, good idea…and when you walk from Grant Street up to the ‘lump on the hill’ you’ll have a great time crossing the street there. Maybe the Port Authority can spend a half billion dollers building a people mover that goes up there too.
I say tear it down now, realign the streets, put in some affordable parking, and let a private developer in there and use the land. I’m sure the city will drag it out for a few years, spend millions on plans that never happen, then in the end tear it down anyway. Save the people money, tear it down now, the old arena won’t get better with age.
enat
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