Charlene Roise: Why we should save the Metrodome
Charlene Roise of Hess, Roise and Company ponders what historic buildings might be endangered in Minneapolis in the January issue of Minnesota Monthly. Her picks might strike some readers as quirky because her definition of what's worth saving isn't based solely on age or aesthetics. She believes many newer buildings, including the Metrodome, Minneapolis Public Service Center and Orchestra Hall, may be worth protecting from demolition in the decades ahead.

About the Metrodome, she says, "We shouldn’t just toss it out without talking about it." After all, its roof is an engineering feat.

Roise and Minnesota Monthly aren't the only ones contemplating the Metrodome's future. The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, the public agency that operates the Minneapolis domed stadium, hired a consulting firm to write a report on its future. The commission is also sponsoring a series of public meetings on what to do after the Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Gophers depart. (Actually, the commission points out that the rent paid by the Minnesota Vikings -- $6 million annually -- is enough to keep the building open for less popular events like high school football tournaments, etc.)

Here's the open house schedule:

• Moorhead -- Tuesday, Jan. 8
• St. Cloud -- Wednesday, Jan. 9
• Duluth -- Thursday, Jan. 10
• Marshall -- Tuesday, Jan. 15
• Minneapolis -- Wednesday, Jan. 16

What do you think? Should we save the Metrodome? What's your favorite part of the stadium -- the fluffy roof or the swooshing air-forced doors? What's your least favorite part of the stadium -- the nosebleed seats, the crink-in-your-neck third base baseball seats, the carpet, the poofy right field wall, the metal urinals in the men's room, the concrete, the concrete or the concrete?