Demolition has begun on Gary's storied Genesis Convention Center

The Genesis Convention Center was supposed to symbolize the rebirth of Gary, Indiana, our famously beleaguered steel town neighbor to the east.

And it worked for a while. Built in 1981, the downtown building was the place for indoor sports, pageants and civic events.

The big hall, at 1 Genesis Center Plaza, once drew acts like Public Enemy, Whitney Houston, George Clinton, the Whispers and even Prince in a you-had-to-be-there 1982 concert with his protégés The Time and Vanity 6.

But the show is over now.

Closed since 2020, demolition crews are now ripping down the venue in the opening move of a major downtown redevelopment effort.

The city and the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority are also lowering the curtain on the nearby former H. Gordon & Sons department store. And there's more demolition to come.

"I don’t want our community to only see what is coming down, I want you to see what is coming next," Gary Mayor Eddie Melton said in a statement. "Holding on to unsalvageable buildings has cost our taxpayers millions and stalled our progress."

There's no question that Gary is long overdue for a rebirth, and keeping around vacant buildings that no one wants stands in the way of that.

Still, I hate to see the Genesis go. At least not without a few words about its passing.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

The Genesis was designed by Chicago architect Wendell Campbell and built by Gary's former Mayor Richard Hatcher, who first publicly talked about the need for a convention center in 1973.

Gary was a city of 175,000 in 1973 — it's about 70,000 now — and surrounding Lake County had a population of 545,000. Located near interstate expressways, rail and in close proximity to Chicago, a convention and entertainment center made sense.

Besides, Gary and its downtown were being threatened by white and middle-class flight and the near-demise of the steel industry. Something had to be done.

The 83,000-square-foot building had a 24,000-square-foot multipurpose arena that seated 7,000. There were meeting spaces and a ballroom that held 1,200.

Campbell's spaceship-like design of curves, right angles and projecting forms was clad in steel, the town's signature product. It looked futuristic and a bit quirky. And it was given a name that symbolized a new beginning.

Peabo Bryson performed there in 1982. Tickets were $12.50. A young Michael Jordan played the Bulls preseason games there in the 1980s.

Former President Barack Obama spoke to 7,000 Democratic Party voters there in a November 2018 get-out-the-vote rally.

Hatcher’s December 2019 funeral turned out to be one of the Genesis' last major events before closing.

The city said the center "ran deep deficits for years, recouping only 33 cents for every dollar spent and costing taxpayers $8 million in operational shortfalls over five years alone."

Stabilizing and repairing the center would cost "in excess of $10 million," the city said.

The old Gordon's department store, at 801 Broadway, is being wrecked because it's an "imminent public hazard," according to the city.

The building has failing masonry, collapsed roof sections and damage caused by years of stormwater knifing through the structure.

Still, it's terrible that the exteriors of the four-story Prairie School building by the top-tier Chicago architect George W. Maher won't be saved and reused, especially with redevelopment dollars being pointed at the site.

Lauren Pacheco, a Gary artist and curator who is among a group of residents and activists whose mandate includes working to preserve the city's historic architecture, said she has "complicated feelings" about the Genesis' demolition.

"I also recognize the need for progress while acknowledging the loss of an important piece of Gary’s architectural and cultural history," she said. "Gary has spent decades being defined by what it’s lost. I’d love to see us shift that narrative toward what we have, what we’ve contributed and what we can imagine next."

And what comes next for the cleared sites?

The city and the redevelopment authority want to build a "modern municipal safety headquarters" — that means a police station; 150 residential units with ground-floor retail, a mini-grocer, restaurants at 5th and Broadway and 90 residences at 504 Broadway.

Also planned is a public space between the Lake County Courthouse, 400 Broadway, and the Hudson-Campbell Sports and Fitness Center, 455 Massachusetts St., that will commemorate the Genesis Center.

The city says its developing the plan with University of Notre Dame School of Architecture.

In a second phase, officials want to point the wrecking ball at the abandoned City Methodist Church, at 577 Washington St., and the disused St. Mary’s Mercy Hospital, 540 Tyler St.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

City Methodist, a beauty that almost looks like Rockefeller Chapel gone to seed, closed in 1975 and has been a popular site for fashion photographers and urban explorers for years.

Michael Jackson was born at St. Mary's in 1958. The complex has been shuttered since 1995.

"We honor our history, and the generations of memories made here, but real revitalization requires courage and decisive action," Melton said of the redevelopment plan.

All this demolition. But the tabula rasa only goes so far. A solid preservation plan ought to ride along side this effort because there is still some good vintage architecture in Gary's downtown.

"I’m hopeful about Gary’s future, but I also believe that the most meaningful revitalization doesn’t erase a city’s identity," Pacheco said. "It builds upon it."