Pennsylvania Convention Center

Brothers Ed and John Hladczuk look through a metal gate yesterday at the American Welding Society's convention at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The gathering attracted about 17,000 and brought about $7 million into the area.

Bicycle enthusiasts Peter (left) and Gerard Bechard of Springfield, Mass., check merchandise yesterday at 1993 Interbike Eastern State Expo at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The expo, to promote new products in the bike world, attracted about 700 vendors and manufacturers.

Philadelphia has all the attributes of a great convention city except a first-class convention center. The location of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, in the heart of Philadelphia, is ideal. The Pennsylvania Convention Center is surrounded by the city's major shopping, legitimate theatres, great museums, and America's birthplace. Our city prides itself, properly, on its ethnic diversity. The best example of this "city strength" is the Reading Terminal Market. The Pennsylvania Convention Center legislation saves, protects and restores the market for future generations.

Claude Legris, sales manager for the new Pennsylvania Convention Center, leads the Greater Philadelphia Health Care Congress yesterday on the first public tour of the center's Exhibit Hall at 13th and Arch streets. The group seeks ways to bring health-related organizations to Philadelphia for meetings. The Exhibit Hall in the $523.4 million center is scheduled to open next June.

THE Daily News has provided detailed and comprehensive coverage of the Pennsylvania Convention Center and its proposed expansion. However, your story of Aug. 12 omits some vital information that would benefit your readers and all those interested in our efforts to expand the center of the region's hospitality industry. It is inaccurate to state that "no one has ever completed an independent cost-benefit analysis to see [if expansion] is a good deal. " The independent, nonprofit Pennsylvania Economy League has conducted two such studies and the highly regarded consulting firm of Pannell Kerr Foster conducted two of its own studies, one benchmark study in 1988 before the center opened (in '93)

The Maryland legislature yesterday approved a bill that would more than double exhibit space at the Baltimore Convention Center and make it more competitive with the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which will open this summer. The Maryland lawmakers agreed to spend $101 million in state funds, which will be combined with $50 million in money from the City of Baltimore, to create a convention and meeting complex of about 305,000 square feet on one level. Gov. William Donald Schaefer, who proposed the legislation, was expected to sign the bill.

In 1983, my real estate partnership purchased a 10-story building at 121 N. Broad St., across the street from architect Frank Furness' extraordinary Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Our building, while not officially a historic structure, is an excellent example of early 20th-century commercial architecture. Designed in the Beaux Arts style by two of Furness' former architects, it balances in height and scale the buildings on the west side of Broad Street. When discussions began in 1998 about expanding the Pennsylvania Convention Center, located nearby, our building was targeted for demolition along with several others.

Editor's Note: Last week, the Daily News editorial board took the commonwealth to task for it's slow pace in funding the expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Below is Gov. Rendell's response to the editorial. I AM WRITING to set the record straight regarding the commonwealth's support for the expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. I am strongly committed to the center's expansion. But my job is not just to fund this ambitious and expensive project. My job is also to make sure that taxpayers' money is spent wisely.

The Pennsylvania Convention Center could have been represented by a keystone. Or a pretzel. As a temporary stand-in, it had been using that all- purpose Philadelphia symbol, the Liberty Bell. But now the convention center, scheduled to open in 1993, has a logo that it can call its own. A stylized view of the Reading Terminal train shed, complete with railroad tracks, will serve to represent the entire $523 million convention center on signs, brochures, letterheads and anywhere else.

DURING 18 MONTHS of poisonous national publicity, it was no time to talk about a $650 million expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. But now, a year after a new labor agreement, the time has come - and the arguments for expansion are compelling. The year-old Customer Satisfaction Agreement that broke an ugly impasse between unions, contractors and management appears to be working. Not perfectly, but well. In fact, if you can believe it, the Center's labor agreement has become a model for other cities' convention centers.

Conventions expecting 500 or more to attend. Date Attendance Pennsylvania Convention Center American Psychiatric Association (APA)2 May 6-8 13,000 Quartz Business Media Ltd. May 8-9 4,000 ChemSpec USA 20122 DVAEYC Conference2 May 11-12 1,600 Bentley Be Together 20123 May 13-16 1,200 American Society for Gene May 15-19 1,800 and Cell Therapy2 City Year3 May 17 1,200 Canon Communications: Medical Design May 19-25 25,000 and Manufacturing East2 Yu Gi Oh Tournament3 May 19-20 1,500 National Organization of the New May 20 2,500 Apostolic Church of North America3 American Association of Clinical May 23-26 2,200 Endocrinologists2 Pennsylvania Association for Justice: May 31 500 Automobile Insurance Law Seminar3 Mazzoni Center: Trans Conference3 May 31-Jun 2 2,000 NOTES: 1. Open to the public 2. Trade show 3. Advance registration required SOURCES: Centers listed.

With the construction of a sparkling, new $786 million building behind him, Thomas "Buck" Riley will step down Sunday as chairman of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority board. The abrupt nature of Riley's resignation, announced Thursday in an e-mail to his 14 board colleagues, came as a surprise to even them, including some board members who noted that Riley was leaving before the July grand opening of the historic expansion of the 18-year-old Convention Center. The new addition is the biggest public works project in state history.

I'M NOT one for reminiscing, but certain moments in life are worth savoring, such as when you are proven right when others said you were wrong. For me, one of those moments happened 17 years ago when the Daily News published a front-page story that I wrote about an important issue facing the soon-to-be-opened Pennsylvania Convention Center. I'll never forget the headline: "IT'S TOO SMALL!" The photo illustration showed a picture of the Convention Center through the lens of a magnifying glass.

Just before the chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority grabbed giant scissors to cut an equally large red ribbon Friday, she beamed at the several hundred people gathered, most of whom worked in the hospitality industry. "Welcome to your house of commerce!" proclaimed Ahmeenah Young. And with those words, all that personifies Philadelphia seemed to descend the large staircase and two very long escalators at the newly enlarged Convention Center.

As he vacuumed new carpeting in a soon-to-be-unveiled meeting room inside the greatly expanded Convention Center, Pat Taylor felt a sense of accomplishment. "It looks really nice," Taylor, 18, of Downingtown, said as he paused in his work, looked up, and surveyed a room that just three months ago was still taking shape. "It feels great that we can make a room like this beautiful," said Taylor, a member of Laborers Union Local 57. The $786 million expansion of the center - described as the city's "dream house" when it was being developed two decades ago - is 87 percent complete, on track, and on budget for its highly anticipated March debut, said Joe Resta, project executive for the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority, which is overseeing the expansion.