ancient cities

186 Convention Centers
outside the unit is shared, an individual owner cannot
alter the appearance of those spaces. Moreover,
the individual owner cannot paint hallways or
plant flowers that are inconsistent with the appearance
of the property.
Many condominiums are former apartment
buildings that have been converted by developers or
building owners. In cities where rent stabilization
and rent control laws protect rental apartments,
landlords cannot increase rents except as mandated
by law. Owners who feel restricted by rent stabilization
and control laws often convert apartments to
condominiums in order to increase profits. The
conversion of apartments to condominiums is
indicative of a trend that further segregates the rich
from the poor. With more and more apartments
being converted, there is less affordable rental housing
available for low-income families.
Cooperative housing or co-ops are not the
same as condominium housing. Co-op units are
not owned; they are corporations with a board of
directors and with tenants acting as shareholders.
Tenants do not sign a deed but rather purchase
shares of the corporation, which includes the lease
of a unit. There is no real estate mortgage involved
with a co-op building. A loan from the bank is
used to purchase shares and the number of shares
owned is based on the size of unit. Like condominium
owners, co-op tenants pay monthly maintenance
fees and cannot make any changes to
common areas. As a form of housing, condominiums
are a compromise between renting an apartment
and owning a house.
Nadia A. Mian
See also Common Interest Development; Housing
Further Readings
Friedman, J. P. 2000. Keys to Purchasing a Condo or
Co-op. Hauppage, NY: Barron’s Educational Series.
Schill, M. H., I. Voicu, and J. Miller. 2006. “The
Condominium v. Cooperative Puzzle: An Empirical
Analysis of Housing in New York City.” Working
Paper, Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban
Policy, New York University.
Siegler, R. and H. J. Levy. 1986. “Brief History of
Cooperative Housing.” Cooperative Housing Journal
of the National Association of Housing Cooperatives,
12–19.
Co n s t a n t i n o p l E
See Istanbul, Turkey
Co n V E n t i o n CE n t E r s
Places for large-scale public assembly have long been
a part of cities—from public halls and fairgrounds to
stadia and opera houses. Although private venues
such as Chicago’s International Amphitheater (home
to five national political conventions through 1968)
often housed major conventions, the twentieth century
saw a substantial expansion of new public convention
facilities. The City Beautiful movement
and the promotion of large civic centers provided a
locus for the development of buildings such as
San Francisco’s Civic Auditorium, Kansas City’s
Municipal Auditorium, St. Louis’s Kiel Auditorium
and Cleveland’s Public Auditorium.
The great burst of convention center development
came after World War II, with the advent of
the federal urban renewal program and the local
initiatives aimed at downtown revitalization and
development. Cities sought to revive downtowns
surrounded by slum neighborhoods and respond to
competition from outlying suburban retail development.
A new convention center was viewed as a
veritable lifesaver that promised to lure hundreds of
thousands of visitors to fill hotel rooms and spur
the development of new hotels and retail development
with the ready availability of inexpensive land
cleared under the urban renewal program’s aegis.
Chicago’s privately owned amphitheater was
effectively replaced in 1960 by the McCormick
Place convention center on the lakefront south of
the downtown “Loop.” Other major cities sought
their own share of the national and regional convention
trade with new public structures. New
York City’s Coliseum was developed by Robert
Moses in 1956 on a Columbus Circle site cleared
under urban renewal. Cleveland’s new convention
center was finally approved by the city’s voters in
1960, after two failed attempts, and constructed in
part under the civic center mall. Boston’s Hynes
Auditorium was developed adjacent to the new
mixed use Prudential Center on a former rail yard,