Gray Organschi Architecture

In 2004, the city of New Haven announced its plans to demolish the Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum, a sports arena and parking garage completed as part of a sweeping historic urban renewal program initiated by Mayor Richard Lee in the 1950’s.  Citing impending structural failure, a scarcity of tenants, and a host of other management and financial woes, city administrators saw no alternative but to raze the coliseum and fund new building development on the site.  Early feasibility studies promised a more “traditional” and “appropriate” urban character.

Over the course of that summer, Gray Organschi Architecture held a series of design charrettes to develop design alternatives to the city demolition plan.  We conceived of the Coliseum structure as a potential development site, a series of 3- dimensional parcels that could be reprogrammed as a mix of entertainment, recreation, and cultural spaces, to be maintained as public property and leased to multiple stakeholders.  We argued that the massive size of the building was indeed appropriate, protecting the 19th century 4-5 story buildings of New Haven’s 9th square from the noise and view of the interstate highway overpasses and exchanges that bordered it; that the destruction of the building was a waste of existing material recourses with enormous environmental impacts; that the Coliseum’s rehabilitation as a multi-programmed, easily-accessed public building fitted with acres of energy generating photovoltaic panels and roofed in a water-absorbing and filtering gardens would make the project a paragon of ecological and cultural sustainability and establish New Haven as model of small ingenuity and resource management.

Upon reviewing our initial proposal, the director of the city’s renowned Long Wharf Regional Theater asked us to weigh the feasibility of refitting the coliseum’s arena space as black box and proscenium theaters with a full complement of technical support spaces.  Our preliminary analysis showed that such an adaptive reuse was not only physically and functionally feasible, but that its ease of access for large vehicle deliveries and its proximity to both major highways and a newly revitalized restaurant and arts district made the building an ideal location for a relocated Long Wharf.

Our conceptual proposal for a new life for the Coliseum asked whether even a building that many had found hard to love and that had been irreparably damaged in its execution from the start, due to the elimination of crucial street-level amenities, could still be a resource for the city through creative adaptive re-use.  We feel strongly that all options must be considered before the destruction of a building takes place and that true sustainability must include wide-ranging analysis of the costs of and alternatives to destroying existing building stock.

In 2004, the city of New Haven announced its plans to demolish the Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum, a sports arena and parking garage completed as part of a sweeping historic urban renewal program initiated by Mayor Richard Lee in the 1950’s.  Citing impending structural failure, a scarcity of tenants, and a host of other management and financial woes, city administrators saw no alternative but to raze the coliseum and fund new building development on the site.  Early feasibility studies promised a more “traditional” and “appropriate” urban character.

Over the course of that summer, Gray Organschi Architecture held a series of design charrettes to develop design alternatives to the city demolition plan.  We conceived of the Coliseum structure as a potential development site, a series of 3- dimensional parcels that could be reprogrammed as a mix of entertainment, recreation, and cultural spaces, to be maintained as public property and leased to multiple stakeholders.  We argued that the massive size of the building was indeed appropriate, protecting the 19th century 4-5 story buildings of New Haven’s 9th square from the noise and view of the interstate highway overpasses and exchanges that bordered it; that the destruction of the building was a waste of existing material recourses with enormous environmental impacts; that the Coliseum’s rehabilitation as a multi-programmed, easily-accessed public building fitted with acres of energy generating photovoltaic panels and roofed in a water-absorbing and filtering gardens would make the project a paragon of ecological and cultural sustainability and establish New Haven as model of small ingenuity and resource management.

Upon reviewing our initial proposal, the director of the city’s renowned Long Wharf Regional Theater asked us to weigh the feasibility of refitting the coliseum’s arena space as black box and proscenium theaters with a full complement of technical support spaces.  Our preliminary analysis showed that such an adaptive reuse was not only physically and functionally feasible, but that its ease of access for large vehicle deliveries and its proximity to both major highways and a newly revitalized restaurant and arts district made the building an ideal location for a relocated Long Wharf.

Our conceptual proposal for a new life for the Coliseum asked whether even a building that many had found hard to love and that had been irreparably damaged in its execution from the start, due to the elimination of crucial street-level amenities, could still be a resource for the city through creative adaptive re-use.  We feel strongly that all options must be considered before the destruction of a building takes place and that true sustainability must include wide-ranging analysis of the costs of and alternatives to destroying existing building stock.

In 2004, the city of New Haven announced its plans to demolish the Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum, a sports arena and parking garage completed as part of a sweeping historic urban renewal program initiated by Mayor Richard Lee in the 1950’s.  Citing impending structural failure, a scarcity of tenants, and a host of other management and financial woes, city administrators saw no alternative but to raze the coliseum and fund new building development on the site.  Early feasibility studies promised a more “traditional” and “appropriate” urban character.

Over the course of that summer, Gray Organschi Architecture held a series of design charrettes to develop design alternatives to the city demolition plan.  We conceived of the Coliseum structure as a potential development site, a series of 3- dimensional parcels that could be reprogrammed as a mix of entertainment, recreation, and cultural spaces, to be maintained as public property and leased to multiple stakeholders.  We argued that the massive size of the building was indeed appropriate, protecting the 19th century 4-5 story buildings of New Haven’s 9th square from the noise and view of the interstate highway overpasses and exchanges that bordered it; that the destruction of the building was a waste of existing material recourses with enormous environmental impacts; that the Coliseum’s rehabilitation as a multi-programmed, easily-accessed public building fitted with acres of energy generating photovoltaic panels and roofed in a water-absorbing and filtering gardens would make the project a paragon of ecological and cultural sustainability and establish New Haven as model of small ingenuity and resource management.

Upon reviewing our initial proposal, the director of the city’s renowned Long Wharf Regional Theater asked us to weigh the feasibility of refitting the coliseum’s arena space as black box and proscenium theaters with a full complement of technical support spaces.  Our preliminary analysis showed that such an adaptive reuse was not only physically and functionally feasible, but that its ease of access for large vehicle deliveries and its proximity to both major highways and a newly revitalized restaurant and arts district made the building an ideal location for a relocated Long Wharf.

Our conceptual proposal for a new life for the Coliseum asked whether even a building that many had found hard to love and that had been irreparably damaged in its execution from the start, due to the elimination of crucial street-level amenities, could still be a resource for the city through creative adaptive re-use.  We feel strongly that all options must be considered before the destruction of a building takes place and that true sustainability must include wide-ranging analysis of the costs of and alternatives to destroying existing building stock.

In 2004, the city of New Haven announced its plans to demolish the Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum, a sports arena and parking garage completed as part of a sweeping historic urban renewal program initiated by Mayor Richard Lee in the 1950’s.  Citing impending structural failure, a scarcity of tenants, and a host of other management and financial woes, city administrators saw no alternative but to raze the coliseum and fund new building development on the site.  Early feasibility studies promised a more “traditional” and “appropriate” urban character.

Over the course of that summer, Gray Organschi Architecture held a series of design charrettes to develop design alternatives to the city demolition plan.  We conceived of the Coliseum structure as a potential development site, a series of 3- dimensional parcels that could be reprogrammed as a mix of entertainment, recreation, and cultural spaces, to be maintained as public property and leased to multiple stakeholders.  We argued that the massive size of the building was indeed appropriate, protecting the 19th century 4-5 story buildings of New Haven’s 9th square from the noise and view of the interstate highway overpasses and exchanges that bordered it; that the destruction of the building was a waste of existing material recourses with enormous environmental impacts; that the Coliseum’s rehabilitation as a multi-programmed, easily-accessed public building fitted with acres of energy generating photovoltaic panels and roofed in a water-absorbing and filtering gardens would make the project a paragon of ecological and cultural sustainability and establish New Haven as model of small ingenuity and resource management.

Upon reviewing our initial proposal, the director of the city’s renowned Long Wharf Regional Theater asked us to weigh the feasibility of refitting the coliseum’s arena space as black box and proscenium theaters with a full complement of technical support spaces.  Our preliminary analysis showed that such an adaptive reuse was not only physically and functionally feasible, but that its ease of access for large vehicle deliveries and its proximity to both major highways and a newly revitalized restaurant and arts district made the building an ideal location for a relocated Long Wharf.

Our conceptual proposal for a new life for the Coliseum asked whether even a building that many had found hard to love and that had been irreparably damaged in its execution from the start, due to the elimination of crucial street-level amenities, could still be a resource for the city through creative adaptive re-use.  We feel strongly that all options must be considered before the destruction of a building takes place and that true sustainability must include wide-ranging analysis of the costs of and alternatives to destroying existing building stock.

In 2004, the city of New Haven announced its plans to demolish the Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum, a sports arena and parking garage completed as part of a sweeping historic urban renewal program initiated by Mayor Richard Lee in the 1950’s.  Citing impending structural failure, a scarcity of tenants, and a host of other management and financial woes, city administrators saw no alternative but to raze the coliseum and fund new building development on the site.  Early feasibility studies promised a more “traditional” and “appropriate” urban character.

Over the course of that summer, Gray Organschi Architecture held a series of design charrettes to develop design alternatives to the city demolition plan.  We conceived of the Coliseum structure as a potential development site, a series of 3- dimensional parcels that could be reprogrammed as a mix of entertainment, recreation, and cultural spaces, to be maintained as public property and leased to multiple stakeholders.  We argued that the massive size of the building was indeed appropriate, protecting the 19th century 4-5 story buildings of New Haven’s 9th square from the noise and view of the interstate highway overpasses and exchanges that bordered it; that the destruction of the building was a waste of existing material recourses with enormous environmental impacts; that the Coliseum’s rehabilitation as a multi-programmed, easily-accessed public building fitted with acres of energy generating photovoltaic panels and roofed in a water-absorbing and filtering gardens would make the project a paragon of ecological and cultural sustainability and establish New Haven as model of small ingenuity and resource management.

Upon reviewing our initial proposal, the director of the city’s renowned Long Wharf Regional Theater asked us to weigh the feasibility of refitting the coliseum’s arena space as black box and proscenium theaters with a full complement of technical support spaces.  Our preliminary analysis showed that such an adaptive reuse was not only physically and functionally feasible, but that its ease of access for large vehicle deliveries and its proximity to both major highways and a newly revitalized restaurant and arts district made the building an ideal location for a relocated Long Wharf.

Our conceptual proposal for a new life for the Coliseum asked whether even a building that many had found hard to love and that had been irreparably damaged in its execution from the start, due to the elimination of crucial street-level amenities, could still be a resource for the city through creative adaptive re-use.  We feel strongly that all options must be considered before the destruction of a building takes place and that true sustainability must include wide-ranging analysis of the costs of and alternatives to destroying existing building stock.