NEWARK :::St. Paul bills itself as the place “Where Minnesota Adventure Begins!” It even has a visitor center to trumpet its clarion call for tourism dollars.
Some 1,178 miles away, Newark, N.J. — with a population oh-so-close to St. Paul’s — doesn’t.
No place to tout its largest-in-the-state museum, its ultra modern performing arts center, its new 18,000-seat arena, its historic venues, its nation's largest cherry blossom collection, its picture-perfect setting for such Hollywood flicks as 2001’s “Riding in Cars with Boys” starring Drew Barrymore.
Not that they aren’t trying.
The American Institute of Architects —- in a stiff design competition with nearly 200 entries from 31 countries — just selected a 13,435-square-foot prototype Newark Visitors Center, complete with bike rentals, a cafe, auditorium and tour-bus stop.
There’s even a gift shop, no less, where tourists might someday grab a “Brick City” T-shirt or a little replica of Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum’s breathtaking “Wars of America” monument in Newark’s Military Park.
“I felt a city on the rise needs a place where you can funnel visitors,” said Alok Saksena, the Montclair architect who created the competition for the Newark and Suburban Architects wing of AIA-New Jersey and hopes it will inspire a go-to destination for tourists in New Jersey’s largest city.
After all, St. Paul, with 287,151 inhabitants, as well as Buffalo, N.Y., with 292,648 inhabitants, are just two American cities with visitor centers in the same population ballpark as Newark, the nation’s 63rd largest with a head count of 273,546.
Buffalo, which opened its center in 1996, takes this tack with tourists: “‘Who knew?’ We hear that all the time from visitors.” Then, it trumpets its stature as home of the Buffalo Bills and the birthplace of buffalo wings. Last year, the center, with an art gallery and small theater showing videos about Buffalo, welcomed 75,132 visitors lured there, in part, by its rich architecture.
St. Paul, like Newark, sometimes finds itself with an inferiority complex. “We know we sit in the shadows of Minneapolis,” said Adam Johnson of the St. Paul Convention & Visitors Authority.
Still, the St. Paul’s visitors center, first opened three decades ago in a circa 1902 landmark resembling a castle, registered traffic of 121,972 last year — nearly twice as many as those who came before a “new age” interior redesign in 2007. Still, it occupies a relatively small 700 square feet.
In the past 15 years, Johnson said, “serious investment” has transformed St. Paul’s strategic greenway along the Mississippi River. “Our river used to be pretty much a sewer line,” Johnson said. But these days, it’s the launching point for riverboat rides. “From margarita cruises to sunset cruises,” he said.
New Jersey is home to just a few visitor centers to show off their assets. Only Atlantic City, Liberty State Park and Trenton have centers, according to the state Division of Travel and Tourism. And at rest areas along the state’s Thruway there are kiosks with brochures.
In the AIA design competition, Newark’s visitors center was positioned on a “conceptual site” along the banks of the Passaic River, sandwiched between the Ironbound and the central business district.
The winning entry, by Di Domenico + Partners of Long Island City, N.Y., is actually called “Portal to the City on the Meandering Passaic,” inspired by the curves of the waterway. The eight-member jury that selected Di Domenico was chaired by Newark-born architect Richard Meier, winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize for Architecture. For its handiwork, Di Domenico nabbed a $10,000 prize at a February awards gala at the Newark Club.
Just days ago, the Newark Club, whose 22nd floor location in One Newark Center provides panoramic vistas of the New York skyline, was a lunch-time stopover for Liz Del Tufo and her entourage of 54 out-of-towners, all from Westfield.
Del Tufo, president of the non-profit Newark Preservation & Landmarks Committee, operates Newark Tours, leading visitors — 600 in April alone, she said — who arrive on rented buses for half-day and full-day tours of many of Newark’s 75 state or national landmarks. Among them is the majestic Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, one of the nation’s largest cathedrals.
“The cathedral is the favorite stop,” Del Tufo said.
Newark has no shortage of favorites sons and daughters, either.
Gloria Gaynor of the disco era’s “I Will Survive” fame was born in Newark, as was Eva Marie Saint, who won an Academy Award for 1954’s “On the Waterfront.” Many others, including director Brian De Palma, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., Marvelous Marvin Hagler and NBA star Shaquille O’Neill all hailed from Newark, too.
Unlike St. Paul, Newark’s waterfront may not be the best place to put the center, Del Tufo said.
“It’s kind of an out-of-the-way location,” she said. “The Ironbound is a tough place to get around.”
Whether a Newark center will rise is yet to be seen, but officials have talked for some time about creating some facility to show off the city’s assets.
In 2008, the Greater Newark Convention and Visitors Bureau was born, with the arrival of the first-ever Newark Restaurant Week. Newark, which has a small visitors “booth” at Newark Liberty International Airport, has been in talks with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to do more, said Stefan Pryor, Newark’s deputy mayor of economic development.
To Pryor, who had not yet seen the winning architects’ design, it’s all worthy of attention. “I think these conversations should encompass these ideas,” he said.
Some 1,178 miles away, Newark, N.J. — with a population oh-so-close to St. Paul’s — doesn’t.
No place to tout its largest-in-the-state museum, its ultra modern performing arts center, its new 18,000-seat arena, its historic venues, its nation's largest cherry blossom collection, its picture-perfect setting for such Hollywood flicks as 2001’s “Riding in Cars with Boys” starring Drew Barrymore.Not that they aren’t trying.
The American Institute of Architects —- in a stiff design competition with nearly 200 entries from 31 countries — just selected a 13,435-square-foot prototype Newark Visitors Center, complete with bike rentals, a cafe, auditorium and tour-bus stop.
There’s even a gift shop, no less, where tourists might someday grab a “Brick City” T-shirt or a little replica of Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum’s breathtaking “Wars of America” monument in Newark’s Military Park.
“I felt a city on the rise needs a place where you can funnel visitors,” said Alok Saksena, the Montclair architect who created the competition for the Newark and Suburban Architects wing of AIA-New Jersey and hopes it will inspire a go-to destination for tourists in New Jersey’s largest city.
After all, St. Paul, with 287,151 inhabitants, as well as Buffalo, N.Y., with 292,648 inhabitants, are just two American cities with visitor centers in the same population ballpark as Newark, the nation’s 63rd largest with a head count of 273,546.
Buffalo, which opened its center in 1996, takes this tack with tourists: “‘Who knew?’ We hear that all the time from visitors.” Then, it trumpets its stature as home of the Buffalo Bills and the birthplace of buffalo wings. Last year, the center, with an art gallery and small theater showing videos about Buffalo, welcomed 75,132 visitors lured there, in part, by its rich architecture.
St. Paul, like Newark, sometimes finds itself with an inferiority complex. “We know we sit in the shadows of Minneapolis,” said Adam Johnson of the St. Paul Convention & Visitors Authority.
Still, the St. Paul’s visitors center, first opened three decades ago in a circa 1902 landmark resembling a castle, registered traffic of 121,972 last year — nearly twice as many as those who came before a “new age” interior redesign in 2007. Still, it occupies a relatively small 700 square feet.
In the past 15 years, Johnson said, “serious investment” has transformed St. Paul’s strategic greenway along the Mississippi River. “Our river used to be pretty much a sewer line,” Johnson said. But these days, it’s the launching point for riverboat rides. “From margarita cruises to sunset cruises,” he said.
New Jersey is home to just a few visitor centers to show off their assets. Only Atlantic City, Liberty State Park and Trenton have centers, according to the state Division of Travel and Tourism. And at rest areas along the state’s Thruway there are kiosks with brochures.
In the AIA design competition, Newark’s visitors center was positioned on a “conceptual site” along the banks of the Passaic River, sandwiched between the Ironbound and the central business district.
The winning entry, by Di Domenico + Partners of Long Island City, N.Y., is actually called “Portal to the City on the Meandering Passaic,” inspired by the curves of the waterway. The eight-member jury that selected Di Domenico was chaired by Newark-born architect Richard Meier, winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize for Architecture. For its handiwork, Di Domenico nabbed a $10,000 prize at a February awards gala at the Newark Club.
Just days ago, the Newark Club, whose 22nd floor location in One Newark Center provides panoramic vistas of the New York skyline, was a lunch-time stopover for Liz Del Tufo and her entourage of 54 out-of-towners, all from Westfield.
Del Tufo, president of the non-profit Newark Preservation & Landmarks Committee, operates Newark Tours, leading visitors — 600 in April alone, she said — who arrive on rented buses for half-day and full-day tours of many of Newark’s 75 state or national landmarks. Among them is the majestic Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, one of the nation’s largest cathedrals.
“The cathedral is the favorite stop,” Del Tufo said.
Newark has no shortage of favorites sons and daughters, either.
Gloria Gaynor of the disco era’s “I Will Survive” fame was born in Newark, as was Eva Marie Saint, who won an Academy Award for 1954’s “On the Waterfront.” Many others, including director Brian De Palma, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., Marvelous Marvin Hagler and NBA star Shaquille O’Neill all hailed from Newark, too.
Unlike St. Paul, Newark’s waterfront may not be the best place to put the center, Del Tufo said.
“It’s kind of an out-of-the-way location,” she said. “The Ironbound is a tough place to get around.”
Whether a Newark center will rise is yet to be seen, but officials have talked for some time about creating some facility to show off the city’s assets.
In 2008, the Greater Newark Convention and Visitors Bureau was born, with the arrival of the first-ever Newark Restaurant Week. Newark, which has a small visitors “booth” at Newark Liberty International Airport, has been in talks with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to do more, said Stefan Pryor, Newark’s deputy mayor of economic development.
To Pryor, who had not yet seen the winning architects’ design, it’s all worthy of attention. “I think these conversations should encompass these ideas,” he said.
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