Notice this 92,000-square-foot convention center in Wilmington, Delaware, once a World War II shipyard along the riverfront. Right here this building hosts local concerts, conventions, and banquets for the Wilmington area. Your eyes can trace a layered history: the facility began life as a ship assembly plant for the Dravo Corporation during World War II, part of the shipyard that once defined this edge of the city.
After that shipyard closed, deliberate efforts reshaped the riverfront, inspired by the Inner Harbor in nearby Baltimore. In 1998 the reconstructed facility opened as the First USA Riverfront Arts Center, a 120,000-square-foot hall designed to hold museum-quality, traveling special exhibitions, modeled on the role of the Florida International Museum. Inside it once featured 25,000 square feet of galleries, a 6,000-square-foot gift shop, and a 13,000-square-foot lobby, with touches like a terrazo floor centered by a compass rose.
The conversion cost $10 million, including $2.5 million from First USA Bank, which purchased the naming rights. It was built to complement the Shipyard Shops outlet mall, built at the same time and later defunct in 2009. Picture concerts, conventions and banquets filling this hall, right where shipyard workers once assembled ships.