Charlotte Convention Center, Charlotte, Bezoekersgids & wat te doen in de buurt

The Charlotte Convention Center is the large exhibition and meeting venue at 501 S College St in uptown Charlotte, North Carolina. It hosts conferences, trade shows and public events through the year. It also stands in a part of the city that once belonged to Brooklyn, a historically Black neighborhood cleared during urban renewal in the 1960s.

The story behind it

Brooklyn was the heart of Black life in Charlotte for decades, with family homes, churches, schools and Black-owned businesses close together. In the 1960s, city planners used federal urban renewal funds to clear the neighborhood for new development. At the time the project was described as progress and modernization.

For the people who lived and worked there, it meant being displaced. Families moved to other parts of the city, and the business community that had grown in Brooklyn was broken up. The neighborhood was never rebuilt in its old form. Today it is remembered as one of the most painful urban renewal projects in the city, and it still shapes how Charlotte talks about planning and who benefits from it. The convention center is one of the modern uptown buildings that now fill this area.

What to look for

• Notice the sheer scale of the building and how it fills its blocks, then picture the smaller streets of homes and shops that once stood in this part of uptown.
• Look at the street grid around College Street and the surrounding blocks, and ask what has been replaced by large civic and commercial buildings.
• Watch the event banners and signs at the entrances, which show what is on at the centre while you are there.
• Walk to nearby Romare Bearden Park, named for the artist born in Charlotte, and look back at the skyline from there.

Tips for your visit

• Allow about 15 to 20 minutes to see the outside and its surroundings, longer if you combine it with the park and other uptown stops.
• You can view the building from the street at any time, but access inside usually depends on an event being held, so check the current schedule before you go.
• Morning and late afternoon light are comfortable for walking uptown, especially in the warm summer months.
• Romare Bearden Park and the Spectrum Center are a short walk away, so it fits easily into a wider stroll through the centre of the city.

See it on a quest

Murder Mystery: Death in the Shadows in Charlotte is a good way to take in this stretch of uptown. You walk to the convention center as one stop on a longer route, the app tells you about each place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle on the spot. One ticket covers the whole group.

Dorothy’s Quest: The Trials of Oz in Charlotte gives the same walk an Oz theme. You reach the place on foot, hear its story from the app, and work out a puzzle in front of you. One ticket covers the whole group.

The Oz Escape: A Wicked Glitch in Charlotte is another Oz-themed route through the area. The app leads you from stop to stop, tells you about each one and sets a puzzle there. One ticket covers the whole group.