New proposition for U.S. Cellular Center hopes to reflect Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS - A Convention Complex design team is proposing to clad the bland exterior of the U.S. Cellular Center arena that faces Interstate 380 with stainless steel panels in a way that displays the Cedar River's course through the city along with the city's street grid.

Sufficiently significant is the proposed image - 62,000 motorists pass the arena every day - that city officials have taken it to the city's Visual Arts Commission for review.

The move has prompted feedback.

Roger Worm, an associate principal with OPN Architects Inc. who is working on the Convention Complex project, unveiled the design to the commission this week where he heard strong support for the concept but clear suggestions for refining the idea.

Commission member Terry Pitts noted that the current rendering highlights the round bends of the meandering Cedar River through the city with sharp, angular lines. Without the rounded edges highlighted, the image loses the whole sense of the river, Pitts said.

One commission member suggested that the highlights without the rounded bends might be mistaken for a readout from a heart monitor in a cardiologist's office.

“We already have trouble explaining the Tree of Five Seasons,” noted Commission Chairman Jim Kern in reference to the metal tree at the Cedar River and First Avenue East that symbolizes the city's promotional slogan, “The City of Five Seasons.” The fifth season is the time to enjoy all other seasons, and to enjoy life.

Worm noted that the depiction is a work in progress, and after the Thursday meeting, he said the design team was meeting with a metal fabricating company Friday to see just what the possibilities for creating bends in the image are. On Friday, Worm said turning straight lines - which are really gaps between the silver-gray stainless steel panels - into curves will add to the cost.

In one corner of the exterior cladding will be a video screen, 30 by 50 feet in size, on which the city and events at the Convention Complex - which consists of a renovated arena and a new convention center - will be promoted.

The Convention Complex budget includes plans to improve the arena's face to Interstate 380, and Worm noted that one idea early on had been to cover the arena's exterior with a screening that displayed a collection of faces. The city San Jose, Calif., has adorned a parking ramp with a screening that provides a show of hands, he said.

Worm said the proposed stainless-steel cladding is similar to the material on the front of the renovated Kaufmann Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals baseball team.

Todd Nelson, chief financial officer for Convention Complex project manager Frew Nations Group LLS, noted Friday that the proposed cladding for the exterior of the U.S. Cellular Center arena is “a work in process.” He added that the $75.6 million Convention Complex budget includes money for the exterior of the arena.

Rob Davis, the city's engineering operations manager, told the City Council's Infrastructure Committee this week that the cladding for the outside of the arena could cost $1.1 million. He reported to the committee that the amount exceeds the amount set out in a council policy adopted in November. The policy calls for spending 2 percent of the city's budget for capital-improvement projects on visual arts. He put the estimate of the city's cost for the Convention Complex at $17 million.

City Manager Jeff Pomeranz asked Davis how the city's new policy on public art defines “art.” Davis said the proposed cladding is an “aesthetic enhancement” to the building, not a functional addition to it.

Davis told the Visual Arts Commission that the city intended to publish its bid-letting on June 15 for the construction phase of the Convention Complex, of which the cladding on the arena's face to the Interstate is expected to be a part.

However, Davis told the commission that the city could bid the arena cladding later than June as a separate bid.

“If you hate it, we'll start over,” Davis told the commission.

The commission's Pitts said the proposed cladding for the arena has the potential to be a “visual icon” for the community. Both he and Kern said the concept looked “cool.”

“It's a vast improvement over what we've been looking at the last 35 years,” Kern said.