Pyramid Plan Upsets Cal State’s Neighbors : Campus: Residents don’t like the shape of the planned $16-million gymnasium. And the structure was designed by an architect whose firm has been sued in the 1990 collapse of the music building roof.

Cal State Long Beach officials plan to begin building a sky-blue, 15-story pyramid-shaped gymnasium this fall, but neighbors are fighting what they call an eyesore and a monstrosity.

The residents object to the location, the shape, the height and the price of the Physical Education and Events Center planned for Atherton Street. In addition, the building was designed by the same firm that designed the campus music center, whose roof collapsed in 1990. “Out of the blue, we find out they were going to be building this pyramid,” said H. Ron Voelker, a retired aerospace engineer who lives across from the site.

The 6,000-seat center will cost $16 million at a time when academic programs are being cut, Voelker and other neighbors say, and it will block their views and draw cars and noisy sports fans to their streets.

“If they want to build a monstrosity, that’s up to them. All we want them to do is to move it away from our homes,” Voelker said. “They shouldn’t be such poor neighbors and use the neighborhood for their parking lot.”

University officials point out that the center will sit 300 feet from the closest homes and will have a 2,800-car parking structure.

“I’m not sure what else we could do,” said Scott Charmack, acting associate vice president for physical planning. “We think other locations make the problems worse.”

The university has outgrown the athletic and physical education facilities for its 32,000 students, he said. “We need the building badly.”

Neighbors question whether the university should build a sports center when it is facing state funding cuts and has had to reduce the number of classes offered, lay off part-time faculty members and may increase student fees by about 40% for 1992-93.

The funds for the sports center, however, were designated for building projects and cannot be redirected, Charmack said. The university received $9 million from state revenue bonds for the pyramid in 1990, and about $1.4 million will come from student housing funds.

An additional $5.7 million is expected to be raised through donations.

“It is the wrong time to be spending this kind of money,” Voelker said. “They should be taking care of teachers.”

The building was designed by architect Donald Gibbs, whose firm has been sued by Cal State Long Beach for the collapse of the music center roof in July, 1990. An independent engineering analysis of the collapse concluded that the 120-ton roof of the Gerald R. Daniel Recital Hall was inadequately designed and improperly built.

Gibbs won the contract for the new buildings before the roof collapsed, Charmack said.

Gibbs said that even though his company is being sued by the university, he thinks he was awarded the contracts for the pyramid and the adjacent Performing Arts Center because of his good reputation with the university.

“I don’t believe that they think the reason for the collapse was the architect’s fault,” Gibbs said.

He said the pyramid is a good shape for a sports arena because no columns will block the spectators’ views.

“It’s appropriate,” said Gibbs, 58, whose father designed the first buildings on the campus in 1952. “The shape also is beneficial in resisting earthquakes.”

Neighbors have collected about 400 signatures protesting the building site and have written numerous letters to university officials.

Bids on the project will be accepted starting Thursday, and construction is scheduled to begin within two months. The building is expected to be completed by 1994.

The 77,000-square-foot pyramid will house five volleyball courts, three full basketball courts, four basketball half-courts and two locker rooms. There will also be meeting rooms for students and a fitness center.

The plans for the sports center are too far along for the building to be scuttled or moved, officials said. The neighbors have had plenty of time to complain since the building plans were announced in 1990, Charmack said.

“We haven’t done anything to keep this a secret,” Charmack said. “We didn’t have a Goodyear blimp to go around the neighborhood, but we did everything required by law and a lot more.”

However, attorney G. Andrew Jones, who lives next to Voelker, said the public notice in 1990 described the project as the “physical education building renovation and physical education building additions.” No shapes or locations of the buildings were given, he said.