In the editorial enthusiastically welcoming the restart of the new hotel next to the library ("Years in the making", The Citizen, July 23), you mention how residents complained about the eyesore of the vacant raw-looking land for the past few years.
But, as the saying goes, "be careful what you wish for."
I look at the picture of the planned facility on page one and wonder whether the same residents will be longing for the better days of for that bare soil rather than the incredibly ugly throwback architecture Marriott has in mind.
I have stayed at this franchise in various places over the years and generally, while not rivals to the Taj Mahal, they've been pleasant enough looking structures.
The design shown in The Citizen, to the contrary, looks primarily inspired by Soviet-era worker tenements in East Berlin.
Did the designer just shrug and say, "hey, it's good enough for a downtown like Prince George's!"
If so, I guess they didn't see the inspiring architectural pinnace of our otherwise not so fair built city: the new RCMP building a few blocks away which is really quite lovely.
Maybe it's appropriate in Canada's crime capital that the best-looking building in the downtown is the cop shop.
As for the vague and dubious statement the editor makes that it is a "welcome addition" and adds to the inventory of hotel rooms (which any flop house would do): no one that I've known visiting Prince George has had much trouble getting rooms in the nearby and comparable chains of the Ramada and the Coast.
Even during the Winter Games, there were lots of vacancies and don't hold your breath that conventions will vie flocking here any time soon, so attendees can take deep breaths of industrial flatulence.
Norman Dale
Prince George
