Want to keep up with all the latest Library news and events? 
Wheeling Zooms Past Pittsburgh In Convention Center Race
 |
|
||||
-From The Pittsburgh Press, September 6, 1975, pg. A-2, © Reproduced with permission.
Wheeling Zooms Past City In Convention Center Race
Special To the Press
WHEELING. W. Va. — This Ohio River city is going to win the convention center race with its big metropolitan neighbor to the northeast by about two years, it appears.
Construction has begun on Wheeling's long-awaited $7.1 million Civic Center, a multipurpose auditorium and arena located in an urban renewal area along the Ohio River.
The center is scheduled for completion sometime next year. That's two years before Pittsburgh's convention center still on the drawing board, is expected to open for business.
WHEELING'S 7,500-SEAT facility will accommodate concerts, exhibitions, conventions, indoor sports events and circuses.
Like Pittsburgh's, the new center will be close to the existing downtown cort of offices, shops and restaurants, With approaches available by river as well as roadway.
It will have four corner entrances and a promenade around the entire arena, affording a good view of Wheeling's skyline.
The arena's proximity to the river With its tendency to overflow its banks posed a particular problem to the architects, Dalton, Dalton, Little & Newport.
All important equipment and entrances are located above the 100-year flood level, but the playing area inside the center is actually below the high water mark.
The problem was solved by designing the center is actually below the high dike, with only a service entranceway exposed. A floodgate which can be quickly installed will protect this opening.
Civic Center | Parks & Recreation | Places of Wheeling Home | Wheeling History Home | OCPL Home
