TUCSON COMMUNITY CENTER

A gem in the art of Urban Renewal. TUCSON COMMUNITY CENTER a new meaning for Downtown Tucson

In 1965 the voters of the City of Tucson took decisive action to stop the decline and decay of their inner city. The result is a modern downtown complex complete with multiple-story city, county and federal governmental buildings, an art center, preserved historic sites, a 300 room convention hotel, the La Placita shopping mall and the Tucson Community Center. With matching federal funds, the city of Tucson purchased a number of parcels of property, which at the time, were held by separate individual ownerships. The Pueblo Center Redevelopment Project, as it was named, encompassed the 28 acres upon which the Tucson Community Center now sits. The $17.1 million convention/ entertainment complex was then funded through the issuance of series 1969 revenue bonds which are currently being retired by monies generated by the City of Tucson. The bonds financed the erection of a 10,000 seat, multiple use arena, a 24,000 square foot exhibition hall, 2,300 seat music hall, a 525 seat small auditorium and 8 meeting rooms. To say that the Tucson Community Center, since its opening in November, 1971, has totally reversed the tide away from the core area of the city would be stretching the point. The facts are, however, that an estimated $23 million a year are left in Tucson by conventioneers who are attracted to the Old Pueblo because of the climate and the new "revitalized" downtown. In addition, some 1 million persons pass through the turnstiles at the Tucson Community Center every 14 months. Those figures are possible solely because of the existence of the Tucson Community/Convention Complex.

The name "konk" has been coined for the material in the background photo. It is opalized petrified wood from Virgin Valley, Nevada. Caused by amorphous silica which has filled tiny pockets left within the wood itself, the opal silica contrasts beautifully to the dark wood tones. This photograph is magnified from a 9 cm. slab section. From the Keith Hodson Collection. JEFF KURTZEMAN There was a time when a trip to downtown meant a depressing look at buildings partly in ruin, pawnshops, bail bond houses, liquor stores and delapidated dwellings. Meyer Avenue was known as the “strip” because of the number of unsavory bars lining the curbs. A walk to the car after dark was a chilling experience.

“Established” retailers were moving East away from the “barrio” to the demographic center of Tucson some 5 miles away. In short, the Old Pueblo was suffering from the chronic decline of the inner city as were many other municipalities its size and larger. Today, the Tucson Community Center's music hall stands on the same site that was once the heaviest concentration of bars on the old Meyer Avenue.

Ironically, the new cultural center for the lively arts, the music hall and small auditorium, now exist on the very site which once represented decadence and decline.

Today, the Tucson Symphony, the Tucson Opera Company and the Civic Ballet perform regularly in the music hall while the Arizona Civic Theatre keeps the small auditorium alive with professional theatre.

Conventioneers stroll across the lushly vegetated grounds from the Braniff Hotel to the La Placita shopping mall day and night. People who work downtown stop to have lunch amidst the greenery and running water in the plaza area of the Community Center which is maintained as a City park. The importance of the Tucson Community Center to the City of Tucson as a whole is summed up in this statement by Tucson City Manager, Joel Valdez, "The trend of decline in the core of Tucson has been reversed. The Tucson Community Center will continue to be the focal point, around which, we plan to build an even greater interest in the revitalization of downtown Tucson."

The signs of renewed interest are showing. Names such as Bob Hope, Sammy Davis, Jr., the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus and Johnny Cash are typical of the entertainment offered at the Tucson Community Center.

Promoters find Tucson a lucrative market to which to bring their shows. Around the Center new businesses are flourishing, 4 blocks away a new high rise office building is under construction.

Robert Thompson, the Director of the Tucson Community Center puts it this way, "I can't help but believe that the interest and cultural attraction created by the Center is a strong influence in bringing the people of Tucson back to the center of their city."