The Night the Roof Fell In

Barely six hours earlier, the arena in Hartford, Conn., had echoed with the cheers of 5,000 fans watching an evening college basketball game. Now it lay in ruins. Said Restaurateur Frank Parseliti, owner of one of the 50-odd small businesses situated in the-$70 million civic center complex that was built only three years ago: "It looks like a big meteorite crashed in the middle of the coliseum." With a terrifying roar, the 2 1/2-acre, 1,400-ton steel-latticed roof of the deserted arena had collapsed under the weight of 4.8 in. of wet snow.

As New England storms go, that is by no means an excessive amount; in fact, a blizzard that roared across the Northeast later in the week, paralyzing much of the Atlantic seaboard, dumped up to 16 in. on Hartford's rooftops. What is more, the flat, "space frame" roof, which was supported at its corners by four concrete pylons, was, supposedly designed to be strong enough to withstand far greater pressure. Said Hartford's embittered mayor, George Athanson: "I don't think it was a natural disaster. I think there was something wrong with how it was constructed."

Athanson and his fellow Hartfordites were thankful that no one was hurt in the accident. But they were shaken, since the civic center was the symbol of the city's downtown renewal, and the 12,500-seat coliseum was the cynosure of the complex. Home of the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers, the arena was also the site of other sporting events, concerts and conventions. As a result of the roofs collapse, more than 300 scheduled events will have to be canceled; in the 1 1/2 to two years that may be needed to rebuild the structure, the local chamber of commerce estimates that business losses could approach $20 million. As Hartford began an investigation into the collapse, City Manager James Daken pledged: "We'll build a new structure, a new coliseum. It will be bigger and better--and it will have a different kind of roof."

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