Looking at it more closely again I’m not a fan. I’m disappointed at how big the building is and how much actual park space and trees will be lost in Olympic Plaza. I also don’t find the building itself that attractive. In the rare case, I think there is too much wood on the exterior that I feel may weather poorly over time. I also have no confidence Olympic Plaza will turn out well upon its completion. I fear they will remove the fountains and splash pad and it will just become another soulless concrete wasteland. Hoping to be proven wrong, but the Bing Tom concept for the renovated main building blows this out of the water. I think Edmonton’s Winspear expansion looks nicer than this log cabin.
 
Beautiful building, it isnt actually wood, it's metal battens that look like wood, very durable. A building with character, huge fan!

Olympic plaza needed a stick of dynamite....horrible layout, significant physical barriers and wastes of space, and most of all a very difficult space to program. There is some significant budget behind it, no doubt it will be an improvement.
 
It is possible they could go with a design without the fountains and splash pad, and still have a rink with removable west and south sides added in during the winter months. Not saying they should remove the water features though.
 
This city is so adverse to water features. Yes they can be expensive to maintain and can’t be used during the winter, however, they add so much for those few summer months we get. We don’t need a million of them, but maintaining a couple elaborate water features shouldn’t be that hard. I’d argue we need one in Olympic Plaza/City Hall Plaza, McDougall Center (does that one still work or did they shut it down) and maybe one more somewhere in the Beltline or Eau Clare.
 
MichaelS said:
This goes to planning commission next week:
Report, Background, DP Drawings, Applicant Submission, UDRP Comments

I don't think there are any new renderings in the DP drawings.
Click to expand...

This is new
ACT.PNG
 
Duck Lightning said:
The seating in the big theatre can be retracted into storage underneath in the basement, allowing for a floor to be installed for special productions.
Click to expand...
Came to write the same! Very smart.... Can probably fit 3-4k in their with a flat floor and no seats for those music acts who want that setup. You are seeing those style and size venues popping up everywhere in the US...lots of music acts in that scale compared to larger arenas.

No underground connection to the other commons...but appears to be a roughed in space for a +15 style connection on the second floor
 
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This is from the DP application. The red dashed line shows the building envelope on top of the existing Olympic Plaza design. This building really is going to take away a giant chunk of the park, definitely more than I was expecting. It makes me very curious to see what the Olympic Plaza design will look like because I feel like they are going to have a very difficult challenge to shoe-horn a rink/splash pad and outdoor concert space and seating in to what little space remains.


1000022936.jpg
 
Tothewest said:
Beautiful building, it isnt actually wood, it's metal battens that look like wood, very durable. A building with character, huge fan!

Olympic plaza needed a stick of dynamite....horrible layout, significant physical barriers and wastes of space, and most of all a very difficult space to program. There is some significant budget behind it, no doubt it will be an improvement.
Click to expand...
I highly doubt it will be an improvement 😞
The new building looks horrible and we lose a good chunk of park space.
PLEASE DON’T DO THIS !
 
I’m with FCC1982 on this one. Can’t believe the city is allowing this much park space to be used for this expansion. This will be a regrettable decision in the future I fear.
 
It is huge. i did not think it was taking that much away.

I assume the new Olympic Plaza design will be quite a significant change and definitely be a Plaza and not a Park. This is taking all the park space away. Especially if you account for Stephen Ave being street, guess that could be much more of a green space?
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