Saturday, October 29, 2011

Marilyn I. Walker Centre for Fine & Performing Arts takes shape downtown

Much has been written, by myself and many others, about the forthcoming St. Catharines Performing Arts Centre on St. Paul Street in downtown St. Catharines.  It is easily the most visible change coming to the downtown core in several generations; however, it is just part of the massive complex soon to take shape downtown.

The less-publicized part of the whole project, so far at least, is the new Marilyn I. Walker Centre for Fine & Performing Arts, located adjacent to the performing arts centre and incorporating the now vacant Canadian Hair Cloth building below St. Paul Street.  Plans have started and stalled over the last while as the provincial government came on board with $ 26.2 from the Open Ontario project, and of course the ball got rolling with a $15 million donation from the Walker family.  Now, plans begin to take shape and we can see the fruits of the last several years' labour finally come to bear.

This past week, members of the media and public were invited to Market Square in downtown St. Catharines to hear from the Dean of Humanities at Brock University, Douglas Kneale, and the lead architect on the project, Michael Leckman, Principal with Diamond + Schmitt Architects in Toronto.  What we saw was a short slide show of what plans are taking shape for the Centre, with ground scheduled to be broken on the site in the spring.

The plans are, to say the least, exciting and ambitious.  There will be new facilities built, of course, but the main focus for many is on the re-purposing of the Canada Hair Cloth building, which will be a very prominent part of the whole complex.  Architect Leckman was excited to report two other, smaller buildings on the present site will also be incorporated into the overall design, so there is really minimal loss of what is already there.  You could not ask for a better outcome on this, and it comes off looking like a win-win situation for everyone involved.

More detailed plans and notes can be found on the website www.buildingtheartsdowntown.ca, from Brock University.  You'll be able to see how everything is integrated into the overall design and how it will coexist with the performing arts centre.  Between the two, that entire stretch of St. Paul Street, while not all visible from the street, will be totally transformed within a few years.  If you approach the site from the 406, especially heading northbound, the change will be astounding.  Finally, a use for at least part of the lower level parking lot!

The new complex is set to welcome students and faculty by September, 2014, and will bring 500 new people to the downtown core on a daily basis.  That alone will help to transform the downtown; just think of the events next door at the performing arts centre in the evening and on weekends primarily, and you can see a lot of extra bodies coming into the downtown core on a regular basis.

Now, all we have to do is see if the much talked-about spectator facility will come to pass downtown, and if it does occupy the remainder of the lower level parking lot, that will make for a pretty vibrant downtown, don't you think?

That last plan is still a ways away, of course, but it might just happen.  If it does, we should be able to please the sports, arts and academic crowds in one huge location downtown.  Let's hope it all comes together, but even if the spectator facility does not actually happen for some time yet, this dual-role complex combining the performing arts centre and the School of Fine & Performing Arts will do quite nicely, thank you very much.

We should be able to get all this done; the old Jack Gatecliff Arena was built in the depths of the depression in 1934, and by the turn of the last century we had an actual opera house near the foot of Ontario Street, so all this building is not without precedent.  If our forefathers could do those projects back then, surely we can find the wherewithal to get the job done today.  Let's hope so; I hope we don't grab and hold on to that proverbial brass ring.

Exciting times ahead!

October 29th, 2011.

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