Hoops and Dreams

The old Basketball Hall of Fame looked pretty cool as you drove by on I-91. All along the facade of the long building were these very tall narrow panels of different colors. Indiscernible silver-white shapes were splattered on them. As you approached, you'd get to an angle where the panels and shapes would neatly morph into a collage of basketball players in action. Passing by and looking back, the scene of players leaping up at baskets would just as neatly break apart back into a spectrum of separated panels. An eye-catching, ingenious bit of engineering, I thought.

That engineering marvel and icon of old is now being slowly dismantled and transformed. The new Basketball Hall of Fame, an iconic engineering marvel in it's own right, has been transplanted next door.

The new BHF website here: http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/bhof-magic-johnson.html .

In the old building's place is going to be a Health, Rehab, and Restaurant combination called 'Rivers Landing'. It's the latest peg in the hopeful development of Springfield's riverfront.

More on this project here: http://riverslanding.net/vision.html

The transformation of the old building has been going on for some weeks now.

I stopped to take a couple pics of the work, for old times sake.

Some of the silver-white colored shapes having been taken down already, leaving ghostly shadows on the colored panels.

New framework is going up behind the old building.