How the "Shoe" came to be... -- XAVIER MENS BASKETBALL

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Date Posted: 13:13:11 06/07/01 Thu
Author: BigCat
Subject: How the "Shoe" came to be...
In reply to: Pablo 's message, "I have only been there once - and can not understand how some ignorant UC fans think the shoe is better than the Cintas center..." on 16:54:37 06/06/01 Wed

As an architect, I know the general events of how the Shoe was conceived...the original architects were Gruen & Associates out of LA. They designed an arena that at that time (mid 1980's)was much more than they could afford. They regrouped, with the design fee fund that they had left, by hiring a small local architectural firm (Glaser) to provide them with a "building" that could function as a college basketball arena. The Shoe was completed for the 1989 season, Huggins' first at UC. At that time the team/sport did not have that much clout with the University and was not treated with the prestige that the program would ultimately evolve into. They also had not embarked on the major "architectural" upgrade to the campus that has been underway over the past 8 years, whereby they have introduced major architectural designs by many of the top architects in the world. (Graves, Eisenman, etc.)

Since the mid-80's when the Shoe was designed, there have been a number of architectural firms around the country that have specialized in "sports architecture". The timing of Xavier's arena allowed them to utilize the experience of these firms to create a state of the art arena. Cintas is a great facility for the sport of basketball. You are probably correct in that the UC will most likely do some sort of addition to the Shoe which rounds off the seating and resituates the playing floor with respect to the sight lines. But this has been under consideration for a number of years, having more to do with the success that UC has had and less to do with "keeping up" with X. X was not the first nor will they be the last to create great basketball environment. Looking forward to watching the shootout in the Cintas for the first time next winter.

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