Fix it or nix it: Future of Charleston Municipal Auditorium hangs in the balance

February 5 was a dark day for the West Virginia chapter of the Kevin Hart fan club. 

That’s the day Charleston shut down its Municipal Auditorium over electrical and structural issues, forcing all upcoming events to be canceled, rescheduled or moved to other venues. That included the pint-sized comedian’s April 13 date, as well as appearances by comedian John Crist, pop philosopher Jordan Peterson and Sesame Street Live, among others.

The closure was initially “temporary,” until an engineering inspection deemed the structure dangerously unsafe. ZMM Architects & Engineers told the city there were two options for the Municipal Auditorium. Option 1: fully renovate the 1939 structure. Option 2: tear the whole thing down and begin again. 

Coincidentally, both options would cost roughly the same: over $25 million, according to ZMM projections. This leaves the city of Charleston with a difficult decision. Do we preserve what we have, or replace it with something new? 

There are good reasons to start afresh. Working on old structures is always a challenge — as anyone who owns a house built before three-prong outlets can tell you. The Municipal Auditorium has problems that would be difficult to fix. The bathrooms and snack bar are laid out weirdly. It’s difficult to imagine how you’d bring them up to modern accessibility standards. And the acoustics inside have never been great. Not exactly ideal for a venue primarily used for concerts.

But these issues are not unsolvable, given enough smart engineers and money. The real decision at hand is — what kind of city does Charleston want to be? 

ZMM’s drawings for a rebuilt Municipal Auditorium is a steel and glass structure, much like what the firm did with the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. I doubt anyone would complain. The new coliseum looks great. But like it or not, that glass-and-steel look will someday be a dated relic of the early 21st century, just as the Art Deco design of the current Municipal Auditorium recalls the end of the Great Depression. Old newspaper clippings have people calling the place “dusty” and “dated” before its 20th birthday — a new auditorium would be no different.

So, which do we want? A dated structure from the COVID era? Or a dated structure from the New Deal?

A new Municipal Auditorium will never boast the roster of all-time greats the current structure has hosted: Ray Charles, actress Betty Grable, comedian Bob Hope, president Harry Truman, Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, AC/DC, Alice Cooper … the list goes on. 

But more important than all those big name acts are the countless graduations, dance recitals, local band concerts and theater productions that have graced the auditorium’s stage. Those events didn’t make the history books, but they’re the stuff that fills family scrapbooks and the soul of the city. You cannot pack up those memories and move them to a new building.

It is possible, I think, to find a balance between ZMM’s two options. There’s a perfect example, located just a few blocks east at the downtown branch of the Kanawha-Charleston Public Library. 

When I was a greenhorn education reporter 15 years ago, the library was dead set on finding property and funding to build a new, state-of-the art facility. The plan had its supporters but plenty of detractors, too. There was concern about what would happen to the old library, housed in a historic limestone building at 123 Capitol Street. Would it sit empty? Would it become another lawyers office?

Over the years, deals fell through and funding came up short. So the library board came up with a new plan. They would renovate the existing downtown library. 

The original 1911 structure was saved and the library now boasts a beautiful modern glass addition, which leaves much of the original stone exterior still visible. Updates also uncovered some of the building’s forgotten glory. During renovations, workers uncovered the original windows, which now bathe the library’s main floor in natural light. 

The downtown branch is now a fully modern, world-class library that still maintains a palpable connection to its history. A newly constructed building might have had all the same amenities, but none of the charm.

I hope architects and city officials can find a way to both preserve and update the Charleston Municipal Auditorium. Our town already has a modern steel-and-glass coliseum and convention center, just across the street. We already have a state-of-the-art playhouse over at the Clay Center.

If Charleston wants to live up to its “hip, historic” branding, city leaders should realize there is one thing we cannot create, for any amount of money. History.