1/20/07: Coliseum implosion date set 

New Haven Register, 12/12/2006, Mary E. O’Leary , Register Topics Editor 

-NEW HAVEN — Mark your calendars — the city has zeroed in on a date to implode the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Demolition Dynamics of Tennessee is expected to bring down the remaining skeleton of the block-and-a-half arena and garage early the morning of Jan. 20, a date worked out some 16 months after the original estimated timeline.

A few more details are being wrapped up this morning, said Derek Slap, spokesman for Mayor John DeStefano Jr., including how much additional money the city will pay Stamford Wrecking, the main contractor, to cover unanticipated engineering costs.

Stamford Wrecking won the $10 million bid to demolish the Coliseum back in 2005, as well as the nearby shuttered Macy’s department store.

Thirty years of memories will be obliterated in 18.5 seconds — the time it will take for the structure to fall in upon itself after explosives have been strategically placed in support columns and elsewhere.

Host to hockey teams, monster trucks, and entertainers from Bob Hope to Iron Maiden, the structure anchored the Ninth Square and was an odd landmark with its huge rooftop garage and spiral parking ramps.

"The Coliseum has been an eyesore for many years. This year it was an eyesore that made noise, and some days it made a lot of noise," said Pat Korten, spokesman for the Knights of Columbus, whose tile and glass- covered headquarters abuts the Coliseum.

During the summer, big sections of steel and concrete decks of the garage were taken down, a noisy wakeup call for residents and a headache for workers in the area, although most were willing to put up with it, if the ultimate demise of the building was the result.

Gennaro Iamunno, co-owner of a new jewelry store, Graffio, on South Orange Street, has watched the Coliseum come down one piece at a time.

"At this point, it has to come down," he said. "It puts a cloud around the area."

For many locals, the behemoth modernist structure was hard to love, although some architects and academics felt the example of Brutalist architecture deserved to be preserved and reused as an important piece of history.

For businesses in the area, a demolition date was a welcomed announcement, and they were anxious for more details.

Slap said a schedule should be available today, and the public can hear an update at a Development Commission meeting at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

Shelly Sheehan, manager of the Ninth Square residences, which has some 200 apartment units across from the Coliseum, reacted cautiously. "Naturally, we are happy," she said.

Tenants are expected to be evacuated during the implosion, over several hours early in the morning. Originally, there was talk of a party on the top of a garage owned by the company, a block away. But, that was during summer.

For others, the implosion was a business opportunity.

Nevyat Shewaye, owner of a coffee shop farther up Orange Street, hopes people who want to watch the event will come by. "I could open earlier," he said of his Saturday schedule.

The demise of the Coliseum was debated for years when it started running a deficit and could no longer compete with newer arenas in Hartford, Bridgeport and Wallingford, attractions underwritten with state funds.

Closed since 2002, the Coliseum’s arena portion was demolished last fall, with the project then stalling over the best way to protect sensitive underground utilities in the area that serve a large portion of downtown residences and businesses.

AT&T and United Illuminating wouldn’t sign off until an engineering review determined the best plan. Huge earth and crushed concrete berms have been erected on site, and hundreds of tires will be brought in to cushion the fall; big chunks of the garage have already been taken down to lessen the impact.

The city hopes private investment in housing and office space, as well as the relocation of Long Wharf Theatre, will fill the Coliseum site.