Watched the Giants-Cowboys game in the new $1.15 billion dollar Taxpayer Dome in Arlington, Texas.
It is an eye-popping structure, replacing Texas Stadium in Irving, which was built for $35 million all of 38 years ago. To someone who has grown up with Fenway Park, a 38-year-old building is still new. But by NFL standards, it was obsolete. It is now being used as a construction/staging area by the Texas Department of Transportation.
Which brings me to two buildings that are being demolished this month. Two buildings I “grew up” in in the business.
The old Channel 3 building at Hartford’s Constitution Plaza is coming down right now. I look inside the gaping holes left by the demolition and I can see the people who occupied those offices. I can hear the conversations we had, the screaming and yelling, but mostly the laughter. We laughed a lot. In the news business, you have to, because it feels so much better than banging your head against the wall. A new office tower will rise in its place.
Deconstructing Broadcast House
And oh so soon, the old Channel 30 building will come down, too. Two old buildings housing two old competitors with one common denominator: lots of good people did lots of good work within their walls.
Once the Channel 3o building comes down, we’ll finally have that freshly-paved parking lot we’ve been waiting a long time for.
And imagine this: if a similar timeline holds in Texas, the Jerry Jones Dome could be a DOT parking lot in 2047.
The Brooks File 
Gerry, Now if we can only get that damn Sonesta hotel out of the way, the job will be complete!
The Maharishi says, “In due time.”
Yo, you’re talkin’ old, Daddyo. Life goes forward, not backward. The good ole days are still ahead of you, so get a grip.
Nah, just a stroll down memory lane. I can’t wait for the old building to crumble.
But I am against spending big tax bucks to build pleasure domes for the Joneses of the world.
If the Cowboys keep playing like last night, it might become a staging area sooner than 30 years!
You’re right. Laughing is better than hitting your head aginst the wall. That said…
Same goes for the ad agency bidness. Li’l em kel and I would gladly volunteer to bang our heads against the outer walls of a building we worked in in Avon. Talk about staging areas. The theatrics in that place were something to write home about. I’d offer to bang away and try to knock the place down myself. But two heads are better than one.
I went to the public open house that WTIC AM-FM-TV had at Constitution Plaza in 1961. It’s amazing how buildings that were new in our lifetime are now obsolete.
Bill, I feel the same way, but especially about buildings like Texas Stadium and the Kingdome in Seattle. They gotta last longer than 25-40 years, especially if taxpayers are building them.
Sad to see it go, but the old WFSB site has been vacant since 2007, when they moved to their new studios in Rocky Hill. I went on a tour at WFSB at Constitution Plaza in 1997.