Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 4, 1993 TAG: 9312040115
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The buzzword 10 years ago was synergism.
The idea was that five cultural organizations under one roof would be a stronger attraction than the same five groups scattered around the city.
The concept also would solve a space problem.
After the Mill Mountain Playhouse on Mill Mountain burned in 1976, the theater group found itself with no permanent home - and no money to build one.
At the same time, the Science Museum was crammed into an outdated former school building in Northeast Roanoke. The Art Museum was stuffed in a former residence in South Roanoke.
The Historical Society occupied an old store on Franklin Road. The Arts Council had an office in the former First National Exchange Bank building downtown.
Like the theater, each was restricted by limited funding in trying to expand or move into better facilities.
Synergism. Center in the Square.
It sounded too good to be true.
Each group would get a new home - rent free - while maintaining its individual identity.
Collectively, they would create a cultural showcase in the heart of a city desperate for downtown revitalization.
Annual visitation was projected at 250,000 people a year. (Before Center in the Square, the Science Museum was drawing about 25,000 a year; the Historical Society, about 3,000.)
The new center would have two theaters, one small and one larger. There would be exhibit space and gallery space, a planetarium, office space, parking, meeting rooms, classrooms, shops, plenty of storage and maybe a restaurant.
It was hoped that an endowment could be established to help subsidize operating costs of the five new tenants. Maybe then, it was hoped, admission to the museums could be free.
The new center also would have room for growth.
Ten years of growth, planners said. After that, it might be time for one of the five groups to move on and the others to expand.
Now - a decade after Center in the Square opened in 1983 - all of the groups would like extra space, but none is ready to leave.
As before, money remains the chief obstacle.
"We could take up the whole building," said Betsy Williams, visitor services coordinator for the Science Museum of Western Virginia.
But she said the museum doesn't have the resources to afford a more suitable location elsewhere. None of the groups does.
Nor do any of the groups really want out.
Despite needs for more space, each is content to be in Center. Each likes the synergy of the five-for-one drawing card and the proximity to the City Market.
Attendance has exceeded expectations. School groups are perhaps the center's most numerous visitors.
Wednesday, a group of second-graders from Macy McClaugherty Elementary School in Giles County visited the center. It was a typical Center in the Square scene.
The children could barely contain their excitement. They looked with wonder up into the five-story atrium. They visited the Science Museum and the Hopkins Planetarium, where they viewed a holiday laser show that began with a laser-written message on the planetarium dome that read: "Welcome Giles County Second Grade."
James Sears, the center's general manager, tells a story about a time he was eating breakfast in a fast-food restaurant and a family with five children came in on their way to Center in the Square. He could tell that coming to the center was a big event.
"This was the Smithsonian to them," he said.
At Mill Mountain Theatre on Wednesday, final rehearsals were being held for "The 1940's Radio Hour." A steady stream of people at the Mill Mountain box office were buying tickets to the show.
Wednesday night, the show held its preview performance. The Curtain Callers also met to work on the theater's mailing list.
The Arts Council offices had invited its members in to write letters to their state legislators urging them not to further cut spending for the arts.
Gift shops for the science, art and history museums were open and doing business.
On the second floor, a sculpture repeated a monotone recorded message. "I wish I were a Corinthian column" echoed through the center's atrium.
"This is our little contribution to the sanity of the guards," said Mark Scala, director of education for the Art Museum.
Growing pains, still
On its 10th birthday, Center in the Square still is experiencing growing pains.
At the Science Museum, the 8- and 10-foot ceilings are too low to accommodate many touring exhibits that the museum would like to bring in.
Exhibits Director Scott Moore cited an exhibit of giant robotic bugs that would be a big draw, but it comes with insects the size of Buicks.
Moore said the museum also had the opportunity to display a mastodon but had to pass because of its size. The tusks alone were 14 feet tall.
"You can't have things like that," he said.
Storage is another problem. Space for all the museums' collections is limited. Workshop space also could be better.
The workshop for the Science Museum is located in the Center on Church annex that was added to Center in the Square in 1990.
To move large exhibits from the workshop to the museum, Moore has to take them down on one freight elevator, go outside, cross Kirk Alley and then take another freight elevator up to the exhibit area.
Mill Mountain Theatre would like to have more seating. The theater also could use more room backstage, particularly for costumes and building sets, said Martha Wiese, the theater's director of marketing.
"Everything we do is big, and it takes up a lot of space," she said.
Wiese said such shortcomings would have been difficult to anticipate. It is like moving into a new house, she said. You've got to live in it for a while before you know what changes need to be made.
At the Roanoke Valley History Museum, limited space for collections and exhibits again is the primary drawback, said Nancy Connelly, the museum's executive director.
She said it is inconvenient to have her collections in the Center on Church annex. "You practically have to renew your passport to get over there," she said.
Indeed, the path between Center in the Square and Center on Church is hard to navigate. "There is a way to get through, but it's a maze," said Susan Jennings, executive director for the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge.
The Arts Council is the only organization located in the annex, which, Jennings said, hurts its visibility. "A lot of people don't realize where Center on Church is," she said.
Sears, Center in the Square's general manager, said he hopes to improve that. In fact, he hopes to improve the visibility for all of Center in the Square. He said he gets complaints that the building is hard to find.
$2 million in changes
There are plans to add a five-story entrance sign that would reach from the sidewalk on Campbell Avenue to the roof.
There also are plans for an electronic message board that would wrap around the top of the center and provide information about exhibits and programs.
On the roof, Sears hopes to add a banquet tent and a beacon light that could be seen for miles. Inside the building, he wants the decor to be more inviting and more lively.
Together, the changes could cost $2 million, Sears said. The center would have to raise most of that through donations.
Money is also needed for the center's endowment. Planners originally believed a $3 million endowment would be enough to subsidize the museums so they would not need to charge admission.
To operate self-sufficiently today, Sears said, the center would need a $12 million endowment.
The fund stands at $2.8 million.
Only the Art Museum has no admission charge. The Science Museum and the History Museum are free one Friday a month.
Sears said there are no immediate plans to expand the center.
So where does it go from here?
In 1979, Center in the Square raised $5 million in just two months to ensure its birth.
Sears would like to see a joint campaign to raise money for both the endowment and the $2 million face lift to ensure a better future.
Isn't it worth it for Roanoke's cultural jewel? Sears asked. "We see the building as something everyone can invest a dollar in."
by CNB