New York Times
By MARTHA C. WHITE

For years, industry slang for a convention center was “a box with docks.” It was blunt but apt shorthand. In recent years, though, convention center managers have been learning the lesson that hotel companies have already discovered: it is not enough to offer just a place to stay or meet.

Cities have been building new convention centers or adding on to old ones in recent years, as they look to conventions as moneymakers. According to the trade magazine Tradeshow Week, 2.8 million square feet of convention center space was added in the United States and Canada in 2005 and 2006, and another 7.5 million square feet of space is on track to be built by the end of the decade.

But with the growth in space has come increased competition for business, and to keep an edge, cities have been turning to distinctive designs and amenities.

“Cities are realizing convention centers don’t have to be so boxy and institutional,” said Craig Davis, vice president for marketing and sales at the Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau. “They’re following hotels’ leads, reinventing the atmosphere and the design so they’re pleasant places to be.”

Judith Fister, an events manager for a chain of hair salons, brought 700 managers and stylists to the Virginia Beach Convention Center in January and said she was impressed by the design. “The space we used for our banquet had a beautiful wood interior,” she said. “It wasn’t your typical convention center where you go in to a concrete floor.”

And that was just the impression officials at the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau hoped to make. Al Hutchinson, director of convention sales, said the bureau “didn’t want to have a box.” So it hired the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, known for designing the Sears Tower in Chicago. The center’s meeting rooms, in a loft above the main atrium, are sheathed in wood paneling, and the center, which opened in stages from 2005 to 2007, features a glass wall that lets in large amounts of daylight.

“Seeing the natural light wakes you up and refreshes you a little,” said Brandon Britt, who runs a franchise for a tax preparation firm and visited the Virginia Beach Convention Center in June for the company’s convention. “It’s more aesthetically pleasing than the warehouse look you get at a lot of places.”

For others, architectural concerns are more than just aesthetic. “We realized we had to build our new center in a unique way to get rid of some misconceptions about Pittsburgh,” Mr. Davis said. “We built it specifically green for that reason.”

The David L. Lawrence Convention Center, which opened in 2004, is the only convention center in the United States to win a gold rating from the United States Green Building Council. The building has a water reclamation system that reduces water use by 55 percent, nontoxic paints and carpets, and large windows and skylights that illuminate three-quarters of the building with natural light.

Mr. Davis said the center’s environmental pedigree has helped the city distance itself from its Rust Belt roots and made it a more attractive destination. “We’ve been able to book almost 50,000 room nights in the last two years just because we’re green, and we’ve had a 21 percent increase in business,” he said.

James F. Hollan III is one of the center’s fans. As a consultant for associations, Mr. Hollan spends much of his time on the road, visiting convention centers and reporting on the merits and drawbacks to his clients. “Pittsburgh has done fantastic things in terms of the use of light and design and the use of open space,” he said. “That kind of thing makes people more happy and energized. It’s an added attraction.”

While a green convention center may seem uncharacteristic in Pittsburgh, it is a natural extension of the reputation of Portland, Ore. When the Oregon Convention Center was expanded over a two-year period beginning in 2001, a system that uses rainwater for landscape irrigation was added, as well as recycling stations in the exhibit hall and climate control units that consume less energy.

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