I had the opportunity to travel to Charlotte, North Carolina for the IEDC conference last week. One of the tour options was to take a walking tour of their downtown cultural arts district. Because we are facing a similiar issue in Salt Lake City, (see latest article in Deseret News) I decided to sign up and see what Charlotte had done.
Charlotte’s downtown is fairly compact, much like Salt Lake. Within a fairly short distance, you have access to the 5 or so museums, theaters and the Bank of America football stadium where the Panthers were creamed by the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, as well as their basketball arena. I was surprised at how close all these venues were. In fact, when I got up on Sunday morning, all the parking lots in the vacinity of the hotel were hosts to Panther tailgating parties.
And much like Salt Lake, during the work day there over 85,000 workers who commute downtown to work. Remember Charlotte is one of the banking capitals with Bank of America and Wachovia (Wells Fargo) having major headquarters there. City officials wanted their downtown to be liveable and memorable. They also wanted to bring tourists in and have a place where they spend some time (and money). They added downtown housing and the building featured below is a high-end condo complex where the likes of Michael Jordan live.
They undertook this project to restore and build new art galleries, museums and a performing arts center. The massive undertaking was funded by private donations, grants and tax increment financing.
Below is the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. The cool statue in front is called “The Firebird” and the same artist also did some of the other artwork found in the park, across the street from the museum and adjacent to the condos.
A couple of other art pieces in the park include this cool skull.
I loved this piece of art totally made from brick.
The Blumenthal Center for the Performing Arts is a fabulous 2100 seat modern theater perfect for traveling broadway shows, as well as symphonies, ballet and the like. The theater is rather unassuming as it part of the high rise business buildings in the downtown. I would have walked right past it if I didn’t know it was there.
One thing downtown Charlotte didn’t have, however, was a place to shop. No mall, no free standing department stores. No where to spend a few dollars. I complained to my husband on my return home that there wasn’t anyplace to shop. He didn’t even try to pretend that he felt sorry for me.
