Editorial
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 24, 1997

Save Gallagher

When renovations on the Memorial Student Union begin, one of the buildings scheduled for the chopping block is Gallagher Theatre. In its place, sort of, will be a massive multimedia facility located just off campus.

Gallagher is scheduled for demolition because it is a masonry building with no steel reinforcement. Steel reinforcement is automatic when building these days; it stabilizes buildings and helps protect them from natural disasters like earthquakes, tornadoes, dust devils and the Arizona sun.

Coupled with the inevitable American need for progress and innovation, Gallagher appears slated for destruction.

This begs the question: Why tear down a perfectly serviceable institution when there is a ready-made repair tool available here at the UA?

Mohammad Ehsani and Hamid Saadatmanesh, professors at the University, have developed and patented a process by which masonry can be "retrofitted" - coated with a blend of epoxy resin and a composite mesh that produces the same effect as reinforced concrete ("Two university researchers keep masonry walls from tumbling down," Wildcat, Aug. 27.)

The process is perfect for retrofitting, since it is easily applied to standing buildings, and is flexible and durable. The material can be quickly and easily applied, and is stronger and thicker than its steel-reinforced ancestor. In addition, this kind of retrofitting is only half as expensive as retrofitting with steel-reinforced concrete.

Gallagher's atmosphere is special, a distinct taste of the UA's on campus night life. Discounted prices for students at prime time movies provide a ready alternative to overpriced theaters around town; midnight movies like "Ghostbusters," "The Breakfast Club" and "Monty Python's The Holy Grail" are a part of UA tradition; and the free advanced screenings of upcoming movies are treats not to be missed.

To tear it down in favor of a modern theater complex is reminiscent of the wave of stadium replacements that hit professional sports in the '70s: Old, beloved stadiums, with an aura of tradition and ceremony, were bulldozed in favor of prefabricated, mass-seating stadiums whose only graces are eyesore-ugliness and garishly overdone scoreboards.

Those prefabricated stadiums are now being replaced with parks that recapture the traditional feeling of the older stadiums. There's a lesson to be learned here.

There is a time for progress, and a time for tradition. There is a time when the two can be combined. Ehsani and Saadatmanesh's retrofitting technique is the perfect way to preserve the tradition of Gallagher and bring the building up to safety codes.

Home-grown technology should be allowed to bring a bit of UA tradition into the next century.