Cira Centre Skyscraper Transformed into Vintage Arcade Game
Dr. Frank Lee is a gaming professor and the co-founder/co-director of the Game Design Program at Drexel University, who has successfully transformed the 437-ft tall Cira Centre, Philadelphia, into a vintage arcade game screen. The project which he has been working on since 2008 has finally come to fruition and will open the Philly Tech Week this month, presented by the AT&T, with a giant Pong tournament.
Dr. Lee started conceptualizing the idea around 2008/09 and reached out the Brandywine Realty - the company that owns and runs the Cira Centre- but there was little support for the project at the time.
However, in 2012 the Philly Tech Week organizers began helping out by lobbying for the project, and earlier this year, Dr. Lee finally got approval to use the building. With the help of Gaylord Holder (a computer science system administrator in Drexel), Marc Barrowclift (a computer science student) and Santiago Ontanon (a colleague professor in computer science at Drexel) this dream has become a reality.
The Pong tournament will take place on April 19th-24th, where players will battle it out on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum across the Schuylkill River. Howver, due to limitations only 100 people will get the chance to play in the tournament. Players (aside from a few reserved slots for certain student groups) will be selected via a lottery.
The hope of Dr. Lee is that by accomplishing such a huge feat as this, and by bringing people together because of it, that the tournament will help to shed a more positive light on gaming and arcades.
