Speaking of creative asset utilization

Washington Coliseum marquee the night of the first North American Beatles concert in Washington, DC.

An extension of Dan's point about building audiences (what Jane Jacobs's called "mixed primary uses") which was part of his reaction to my thoughts about combining a DC Central Library with a City Museum and the DC Archives is related to another idea I've suggested for about two years-- that the Uline Arena (also called the Washington Coliseum) could be connected up somehow with XM Satellite Radio and become the XM Coliseum and utilized to promote XM radio content as well as concerts, etc. Plus it's right across the street from the New York Avenue metro station.

XM Satellite Radio is located about 4 blocks from the Uline Arena. Photo courtesy of Dan Malouff.



Grocery Store and residential redevelopment concept for the Uline Arena.

This connects with the idea that the Federal City Council won't give up, of creating a "National Music Center" (note to the FCC -- the Experience Music Project in Seattle isn't doing all that great). Certainly one way to do this is to experiment with an extant building without having to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a new facility. (Anyway, according to the Washington Business Journal, the FCC is looking to take over the current City Museum as a trial site. Check out their website for more information.)

This isn't that much different for what Radio/TV One proposes in association with bringing their headquarters back to DC and locating next to and incorporating the Howard Theater into their operations. (See "Panel Approves Radio One's Planned Move To District" from the Post.)



Similarly, a couple years ago I had suggested that Alexandria try to do this with PBS, much along the lines of what the Independent Film Channel has done with the old Waverly Theater in Manhattan (see "Art-House Showdown-- The spanking-new brand-extending! Welsh-rarebit-serving! IFC Center stomps into downtown—and sends rivals into a competitive tizzy" from New York Magazine).

The point should be to creatively utilize and maintain the resources we have, as well as to extend our cultural resources with new projects.

Beatles at the Washington Coliseum, February 11, 1964. (From the video.)

Index Keywords: arts-culture; concerts-music; cinema