ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 1, 1996 TAG: 9603010027
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
NO, IT WON'T BE the Star Span ... or the Crossover ... or even the Crystal Folly. How about simply "Market Square Walk"?
Holding your breath awaiting a stunning name for the downtown walkway between the City Market and the Hotel Roanoke?
It's time to exhale.
A Roanoke Planning Commission subcommittee that has been pondering potential titles for the $7 million, glass-enclosed bridge has tossed hundreds of suggestions on the scrap heap.
"Star Walk," "Scenic Connection," "Noel C. Taylor Walkway" and "Taxpayers' Folly" - they're out - says Ordinance and Names Subcommittee Chairman John Bradshaw.
The bottom line, Bradshaw says, is the pedestrian bridge should have a, er, pedestrian name. If it has one at all.
The subcommittee met for about two hours last week and is expected to send its recommendations to the full Planning Commission next week.
City Manager Bob Herbert in December asked the commission to come up with a list of three to five suitable names for the structure, which opened in August after about 10 months of construction.
Herbert's request followed a blizzard of suggestions from Roanoke Times readers - more than 300 in all - on potential names for the walkway. Dozens more proposals poured into City Hall.
Bradshaw, board chairman of the architectural and engineering firm Hayes Seay Mattern & Mattern, says the subcommittee questions whether the bridge ought to have a formal name at all.
"We really don't feel there's any real justification for naming it now," Bradshaw says. He notes that there are 60-some bridge or bridgelike structures in Roanoke, yet only three or four have official names, such as the partially-torn-down Hunter Viaduct, Shaffers Crossing and Memorial Bridge.
But if the city wants to give it some informal designation, it ought to follow some general guidelines to which the Planning Commission has adhered when considering names for public works over the past years, Bradshaw said.
First, landmarks aren't named for living people, only the dead. That would kill a suggestion by a number of the newspaper's readers to dedicate the bridge to Roanoke's beloved former mayor, the Rev. Noel C. Taylor. He's very much alive.
Second, if a structure is named for a deceased person, it should be somebody who had a lasting impact on the Roanoke Valley.
That rules out a proposal by one reader for the "Jerry Garcia Bridge." There's no question the former Grateful Dead band leader is dead. But, heck, he only played here twice. What kind of impact is that?
Third, if the bridge is formally designated, the name should roughly define where and what it is, Bradshaw says.
Thus, "it should not be named for such worthy things such as `Sister City Walk,' which doesn't tell you where it is, or `Veterans of the Spanish Civil War Bridge,''' Bradshaw says.
That also shuts out many, many variations on the "Star City" theme, such as "Star Walk," "Star City Connection," "Star City Walkway," and other vague titles such as "Grand Span," "Window Walkway," and "Express Link."
City Council may wind up with proposals for informal names that identify what the bridge does and where it is. Bradshaw offered a couple of suggestions: "Market Square Walk," or "Market Square Skywalk."
Both of those definitively identify what the bridge is for and where it is, he says.
"We think it needs to be referred to in some way," he said. "But we don't think there needs to be an official ribbon-cutting ceremony just to name it."
Roanoker Frances Fagan, one of many readers who suggested the bridge be given a "Star" theme, says she's not too disappointed that the committee has dumped her suggestion. "I have much more important things to worry about than that," she says.
But "I really don't like [Market Square Walk]," Fagan adds. "It's not in the Market Square, and it's not a walk. ... It sounds like a dance, or a walk around Market Square. It's a bridge. It should have `bridge' or `span''' in the name.
Jim Cavanaugh, another Roanoke resident who had suggested a "Star"-type name for the bridge, says "Market Square Walk" sounds pretty good to him.
"The city of Roanoke got behind the hotel. I feel like they should also get behind the City Market and the shops and restaurants down there. ... Market Square sounds pretty good as far as the bridge projecting a theme."
Unlike Fagan, Cavanaugh believes the name is important.
"Landmarks ... stick around. People use names like Crossroads, or Wasena or Raleigh Court. It kind of gives them a direction. They last," he says.
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: FILE. It cost $7 million and didn't come with airby CNBconditioning - or a name. It's the yet-to-be-named span between the
Hotel Roanoke and Roanoke City Market.