Bayfront Smokestack
sent July 16, 2006
Dear Editor:
With interest, we at CIVITAS are following, the ongoing work to create a hotel and convention center near Dobbins landing. We applaud the relocation of Greyhound Bus service from Upper Peach to the bayfront and expect that a stopover at the splendid Intermodal Center will encourage travelers to return for a longer visit.
We agree that it is time to address our neglected bayfront smokestack. Because it is visible from much of the bay, the bayfront and Presque Isle - the stack helps to orient newcomers and residents. This structure offers us a tangible connection to our city's past. - an emblem of the once - industrial waterfront.
Last year Dr. Shannon McMullen spoke, at the Erie Art Museum, about innovative adaptive reuse of industrial architecture in Germany's Ruhr District. McMullen described light sculptures that transformed abandoned relics into popular works of contemporary art.
CIVITAS believes our neglected bayfront stack can become a powerful neighborhood identifier. Imagine our bayfront stack freshly-painted and ringed with a neon glow echoing the nearby gold-leafed church domes. Interior lighting could be designed to shoot a vertical line of light from the stack during special downtown events like Celebrate Erie.
A combination of private funds and public arts grants could fund a stack series.
We must begin to creatively embrace, and adaptively reuse, Erie's historic industrial architecture.
Sincerely,
CIVITAS
With interest, we at CIVITAS are following, the ongoing work to create a hotel and convention center near Dobbins landing. We applaud the relocation of Greyhound Bus service from Upper Peach to the bayfront and expect that a stopover at the splendid Intermodal Center will encourage travelers to return for a longer visit.
We agree that it is time to address our neglected bayfront smokestack. Because it is visible from much of the bay, the bayfront and Presque Isle - the stack helps to orient newcomers and residents. This structure offers us a tangible connection to our city's past. - an emblem of the once - industrial waterfront.
Last year Dr. Shannon McMullen spoke, at the Erie Art Museum, about innovative adaptive reuse of industrial architecture in Germany's Ruhr District. McMullen described light sculptures that transformed abandoned relics into popular works of contemporary art.
CIVITAS believes our neglected bayfront stack can become a powerful neighborhood identifier. Imagine our bayfront stack freshly-painted and ringed with a neon glow echoing the nearby gold-leafed church domes. Interior lighting could be designed to shoot a vertical line of light from the stack during special downtown events like Celebrate Erie.
A combination of private funds and public arts grants could fund a stack series.
We must begin to creatively embrace, and adaptively reuse, Erie's historic industrial architecture.
Sincerely,
CIVITAS
