If you have questions about how the Daily News makes editorial decisions, this blog has the answers. Editorial page editor Matt Zencey and writers Frank Gerjevic and Rosemary Shinohara will discuss what they're working on, answer questions and ask your perspective on issues facing Alaska.
Matt Zencey
Matt Zencey joined the Daily News as an editorial writer in 1985 and was named editorial page editor in May 2007. He has won several. "Best editorial writing" awards from the Alaska Press Club and was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University. He lives on the west side of Anchorage, where he enjoys the best weather in town and easy access to the Coastal Trail. E-mail Matt at mzencey@adn.com
Frank Gerjevic
Frank Gerjevic has worked at the Daily News since 1978, where he's been sports editor, copy editor, reporter and columnist. He's been an editorial writer since 1998. He began his newspaper career with the Anchorage Times in 1975. E-mail Frank at fgerjevic@adn.com
Rosemary Shinohara
Rosemary Shinohara is an editorial writer who has lived most of her life in Alaska. She has spent most of her career as a reporter or editor at the Daily News. She covered construction of the Alaska oil pipeline, the Legislature, schools and urban affairs. She has also been an editor for NPR's All Things Considered, and has written for the Associated Press. E-mail Rosemary at rshinohara.com
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Posted: March 26, 2008 - 8:21 am
In response to our editorial Sunday about the aesthetics of the new convention center, now 85 percent complete, a reader wrote:
"Instead of dumping on something that is under construction why can't you wait until it is finished?"
Our answer:
The mayor and convention center folks offered a media tour of the Dena'ina Center to show it off, so it seemed like they were inviting community attention to the project, even though it's not finished. I have heard many people express concern that the outside will be ugly, so I wanted to hear what the building's backers had to say about that.
Comments at this stage about its exterior appearance might improve the odds that something gets done sooner rather than later to make it look better.
Eastside view of the convention center
Other comments from readers:
* You're a little late to be worrying about walls! Taggers'll take care of the problem sooner or later. Maybe the pile of junk slated for museum art could be stuck on the convention center wall instead.
* Use the PAC carpet to really cap of the essence of ugliness.
* The convention center is the most hideous structure ever built in Anchorage. The architects and Mark Begich should be run out on a rail for letting this monstrosity be built in the center of Downtown. It has all of the architectural appeal of a Gulag. It was built on the cheap and the developers are laughing all the way to the bank while the City gets stuck with the bill.
2 March 26, 2008 - 9:42pm | seewhy
to take it apart as a work of architecture... why not at least make sure the critique is done by an actual qualified architectural critic?
i don't think it's necessarily a good idea to have the general public suggesting ways to repair the building's aesthetics.
1 March 26, 2008 - 3:19pm | TheSdog
if it is ugly?
It may ending up being an albatross so it may as well be ugly.
April 2, 2008 - 7:53pm | rfn
There are people who find the albatross as pleasing to the eye as, for example, the swan. Or perhaps the raven.
Palin is definitely in trouble over that "Lego" remark; those Scandinavians are quite litigious and there is talk about a slander suit, her using their good name in connection with that "sculpture". They definitely have their eye on those oil tax billions!
But, seriously, show me a state with a law dictating spending some fixed percentage of the cost of a public facility on "art" and I'll show you a horde of hucksters dreaming up the most incredible atrocities to palm off on an unsuspecting public and an uncaring bureaucracy.
By way of example.
Yet all is not lost; there are remedies as you may choose to read.
April 7, 2008 - 12:45am | cat_train2
What's wrong with your example?
Birds can sit on it. Things can live on, under, or hanging from it. If we forget what a broken pine cone looks like, it reminds us. Nobody can steal it. Mischievous children can paper it. You can't be wrong about which way it seems to be headed.
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3 April 20, 2008 - 8:31pm | lunatech
Anchorage architecture
Everyone wants store chains who come to Alaska to build structures that do not resemble concrete boxes. This is very reasonable. The winter months here are rather gray and colorless. Drab colorless concrete boxes do nothing to improve our cities appearance.
Yet, our city loves drab, boring, concrete architecture when it builds structures funded by the tax payers. Look at the new museum addition, another boring multi-million dollar building. All these buildings are quite nice inside, but what about the exteriors? The exterior of the new Anchorage jail is more interesting then this building in my opinion. Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration. What ever happened to beautiful architecture that inspired people for decades to come?
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