The New Haven Coliseum is a multi purpose 11,171 seat arena based in New Haven, Connecticut.It was christened the New Haven Veterans' Memorial Coliseum when it was built in 1972 at the cost of 19 million dollars. Over the years it has hosted various professional hockey teams, Yale and Uconn basketball games, hundreds of concerts, including acts such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Pat Benatar, and Bob Hope who was the Coliseum's first concert in 1972. The Coliseum has also hosted everything from tractor pulls to conventions of Jehovah's Witnesses over the years.
The most striking aspect of the New Haven Coliseum is its' Brutalist architecture. Designed by Kevin Roche, the Coliseum looks more like a futuristic space base (by 1960's standards) than your average arena. Roche placed a 2,400 car parking garage directly on top of the Coliseum (you can see the ramps etched into the roof of the Coliseum) and that feature, along with its huge brick and concrete facade gave the building a imposing almost intimidating look.
The Coliseum turned out to be something of a failure. It was grossly wasteful, both in energy and money. By most accounts it was ugly, and the parking garage started falling apart in the 1980's, even to the point where large nets were installed to catch the chunks of concrete that kept falling to the street below. The escalators malfunctioned frequently (and the one to the concourse level was REALLY tall, walking that was no fun!) and despite millions of dollars in repairs and upgrades the Coliseum closed in 2002. The building still was standing as of 2005, but was slated for demoliion later on that year.
Finally, after long demolition delays, the Coliseum was imploded on January 20th, 2007
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