Constructed between 1968 and 1972, the Norfolk Cultural and Convention Center represents a confluence of Modern Movement architectural styles and mid-20th century urban planning practices with few, if any, counterparts elsewhere in Virginia. Designed by internationally renowned Italian architect Pier Luigi Nervi and local firm Williams and Tazewell & Associates, the “superblock” complex encompasses several traditional city blocks and includes the Neo-Expressionist SCOPE arena, which utilizes Nervi’s soaring concrete buttresses and ferrocement dome, along with the New Formalist Chrysler Hall theater, an interstitial plaza of reinforced concrete, and a below-grade parking garage. While the Center made Norfolk and the Tidewater area a destination for high-profile entertainment and recreational events, it is also representative of the City of Norfolk’s largescale urban renewal program that redeveloped vast swaths of downtown, reconfigured streetscapes, and constructed massive civic spaces as well as thousands of new housing units.