Word: arena
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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After the collapse of the Kemper Arena in Kansas City [June 18], architects should worry about their falling reputations. But structural engineering is not their real shortcoming; it's aesthetic engineering. When buildings fail to dignify man's spirit, his potential, architecture fails to excite us. It becomes boring. As proof we have the modern suburb...
P.C.I, deputy and longtime companion of legendary Communist Leader Palmiro Togliatti; she thus became the first woman president of a parliamentary assembly in Italy's history. By giving up his lofty parliamentary post, Ingrao would be better able to descend into the arena of party politics and head an anti-Berlinguer faction. Considered one of the party's deepest thinkers, Ingrao is at the center of a "cerebral" faction that advocates a thorough overhaul of Communist strategy based on a careful re-examination of the party's strengths and objectives. Ingrao and his followers seek to reunify...
...evidently something was not strong enough. In the evening, after the visiting architects had left the arena, a tremendous rainstorm hit the city, dumping 4 in. of rain in 30 minutes. Shortly after it began, Arthur LaMaster, the supervisor on duty in the deserted building, noticed water pouring down two sides of the $250,000 Scoreboard, which was suspended from the center of the ceiling. Then he heard a roar "like a pounding of a sledge hammer on concrete." The 18-ton scoreboard came crashing down, and more than half of the arena's roof collapsed. Twisted steel, broken...
...cause of the collapse could not immediately be pinpointed, but theories abounded. One held that rain water on the arena's roof had not drained off properly; an estimated 640 tons deluged the roof before it gave way. City Engineer Don Hurlbert had another theory: fluctuations in air pressure, perhaps caused by a blown-out window, might have caused more pressure to build up under the roof than above it, literally blowing the roof off. Privately, some architects speculated that the arena may have been more vulnerable structurally to atmospheric pressures because its main supports, the exterior pipe networks...
...With its arena in ruins, Kansas City faces an immediate financial loss if it cannot rebook scheduled events into other facilities. The earliest projected date that the coliseum can reopen is November. City officials are worried, however, that even after the coliseum is thoroughly checked out and rebuilt, Kansas City residents will be afraid...