Detailed architectural drawings for Winston-Salem’s taxpayer-funded downtown stadium were submitted to the Community Appearance Commission yesterday. There were a couple of issues, including concerns that citizens would be paying for advertising for Billy Prim’s business:
…the committee members did raise several concerns, including one about a giant advertisement for Primo Water, a bottled-water company Prim started in 2004.
The advertisement wasn’t mentioned last summer when Prim asked the Winston-Salem City Council to rezone the land for the ballpark, but the latest designs have a 38-foot-tall long-neck bottle of Primo Water standing on one of the stadium walls. As proposed, the top of the bottle would shoot up about six stories tall.
The display did not win support from some of the commission members – or Pat Eisenbach, a Winston-Salem resident who attended the meeting.
“I was surprised that there would be this huge water bottle on a stadium that was partly funded by tax dollars.… It’s just tacky,” she said after the meeting.
Here’s the best part. Prim’s architect, Michael West, says the water bottle isn’t signage “but an integral part of the architecture.” If he says so.
