Although it's not quite how the architects conceived it, three years ago, Tucson Arts Council's Director of Public Art, David Hoyt Johnson, says he is enthusiastic about Rafael Viñoly's plan for a landmark arch and wants to see it built.

As coordinator of the 2002 Tucson Gateway Design Competition, Johnson said he's seen over 80 proposals for an iconic span to mark the city. From a rainbow arch to a whimsical "cactus" bridge, they all offered a vision that he sees fulfilled in the proposal for the new Flandrau Science Center.

"The new science center is functional sculpture," he said. "It is great art with a utilitarian purpose."

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Johnson said the Tucson Gateway project grew out of an idea at the arts council that as the CANAMEX gateway to the U.S., the city should mark its identity. With a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the support of the Tucson Department of Transportation, the council proposed the contest as a way of seeing what was possible.

"Although there was never a promise of a commission, there were substantial prizes, including $25,000 for first place," he said. "As a result, we got a lot of imaginative ideas, which we were able to exhibit. You don't need an Eiffel Tower or a gateway arch at St. Louis, but their wonderful landmarks for these cities. These structures, and others like the Space Needle in Seattle, are created by civic leaders who understood that great architecture is something that makes great cities even greater."

Although the cost of the proposed Flandrau Science Center is likely to be far higher than the $76 million originally budgeted for the project, Johnson said Tucson can't afford not to embrace the project. "This city will find a lot of things we can't afford in the future if we don't support this vision."

For Les Wallach, principal with Line and Space Architecture in Tucson, who won the 2002 competition, the Viñoly design is "thought provoking" but he questions whether a city can self-consciously create an icon. "I don't know if you can say ‘this will be Tucson's icon.'"

He said, "Maybe it will be, but maybe the Catalina Mountains are the city's icon or the saguaro. Mostly, an icon just happens."

Wallach said both the gateway concept and uniting the city are valid objectives, as is the goal of attracting people to the city's center, "since we've been hoping for years to get downtown revived."

Although the arch will dominate the city's skyline, Wallach said it should be considered in context of the rest of the complex. "There's going to be a lot of stuff there, all around the arch. Taken together, the approach taken does work well as the home of the science center. "Science and technology is what this building is about, so it's a good idea to express this in the use of interesting materials in an interesting way."

Brooks Jeffery. Associate dean of the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona, is even more critical, calling the concept of an icon "the wrong approach" and a misuse of public funds. "The idea of branding Tucson with a simple image can't represent the diversity of people and cultures in this community."

While the goal of bringing the city together is valid, Jeffery said, focusing on this single point of access with this span isn't the best solution. "I don't think this is even a practical solution, and there are safety issues, as well. This object might be interesting to look at, but it might not make sense."

What is worse, he said, is that the sprawling new Flandrau Science Center and other large scale construction projects replicate the mistakes of 1960's urban renewal, which centered around similar big ticket projects.

"If you build it, they will come as a downtown redevelopment strategy was tried then and it didn't work," he said. "We need to develop those neighborhoods downtown, making an investment in schools, retailers like grocery stores and other amenities to increase the desirability of downtown living. Let's concentrate on doing these incremental improvements now, and do the big ticket items later."

Contact Philip S. Moore at pmoore@azbiz.com or at (520) 295-4238.