Saturday, May 28, 2011

Architecturally speaking, a stellar week in Niagara!

I am now officially excited.  I know it doesn't take much, really, but let me explain.

Much has been written about the equally much-anticipated performing arts centre coming to downtown St. Catharines in a couple of years.  This past Wednesday evening, Niagara residents were given their first look at several proposals on the table from Toronto's Diamond + Schmitt Architects.  Gary McCluskie, lead architect on the project, addressed the large crowd at the Dunlop Drive Senior Centre in St. Catharines Wednesday evening with a wealth of valuable information that left this reporter finally excited about this project and almost giddy with the realization this thing is finally getting off the ground.

McCluskie spoke in terms everyone could understand, and spoke with a knowledge of the local area landmarks that I frankly found reassuring.  In other words, he gets it.  He knows what's important to us and what makes a performing arts centre an important part of the community.  Speaking with him afterwards, his genuine enthusiasm for the project is quite evident, as if he were right here in the community sharing in the excitement with us.

There is a long way to go on this, of course; the preliminary designs are just that:  preliminary.  But the focus of this first community meeting was to tap into the community's thoughts and feelings and try to get a sense of what works for us.  McCluskie promises more such meetings to come, and that will help feed the optimism that we are indeed on the right track with this project and everything is working out the best possible way. 

One look at some of the other examples of their work in recent years on display at the meeting suggest we have hired the gold standard for designing attractive, viable and workable performing arts centres the world over.  The new home of the Detroit and Montreal Symphony Orchestras, for example, and even the New Mariinsky Theatre in Russia are some recent examples on display for our perusal, as well as, of course, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto.

So as I say, I am now officially excited.  Let the fun ride now begin!  But that's not all this week.  That same afternoon I attended a media conference at the new Scotiabank Convention Centre in Niagara Falls at which the Falls Management Company, operators of the Fallsview Casino Resort and Casino Niagara, announced plans are in the works for a 7,000-seat Entertainment Centre for Niagara Falls.  The new facility, to be likely situated on land adjacent to the Fallsview Casino Resort and connected to it, will be a magnet for both top-flight entertainment and economic development in the tourism sector year-round in Niagara.

It comes at a price, of course.  Try about $ 311-million to construct the new facilty.  But FMC thinks it can be done, and is confident their feasibility study conducted at their expense by Deloitte will bring people on-board to build a complex able to house international-scale concerts as well as sports and entertainment events that should keep the facility open well over 300 days of the calendar year.  What it won't have, we discovered this week, is a rink to house the Niagara IceDogs or any other sports team that wears skates, so that means St. Catharines' bid to build their own 5,000-seat 'spectator facility' to house the IceDogs should not be affected by it.

What would concern me, though, is the aim of both facilities to book major international acts such as Celine Dion, for example, on an ongoing basis.  Build it and they will come...but how many bums will there be in the seats, you have to ask.  There are only so many entertainment dollars to go around for most Niagarans, and both venues working on bringing lots of entertainment and sports events to the area on a regular basis might be doable, but at what cost?  Do other local events suffer as a result as so many other events are then competing for our entertainment dollars?  We'll have to see.

If this new vision from FMC becomes a reality, it will certainly put Niagara on the map as a destination for world-class entertainment to complement the already world-class accomodation, dining and tourism events already in place.  The concept is extremely exciting, and I wish them well as they work towards the completion of this project.  If it happens, we'll all gain from the added economic impact on an area that depends more and more on tourism dollars to increase our standard of living.

Finally, a couple of quick notes of things also happening this week I attended that brought with them their own level of excitement.  Friday afternoon I was on hand for the launch of the new Food & Wine Expo that filled a large exhibition space at the new Scotiabank Convention Centre and will be open throughout this weekend.  It is a marvellous showcase for the food and wine industry here in Niagara, and I can imagine this becoming bigger and better in coming years.  But for now, get out and see what Niagara has to offer from our area restaurants and wineries in one convenient convention space in Niagara Falls.

I was also on hand for the Open House down at the Welland campus of Niagara College on Thursday evening.  In spite of wet weather, everyone came out to see the realization of a vision for expansion at Niagara College on a scale never seen before.  The $ 80-million makeover is part of the College's $ 90-million master plan to add 1,700 new student spaces at Niagara College.  The new facilities are simply breathtaking, and the lucky students there now and those who will attend in the future will now have all the tools necessary to help prepare them for the future, as the Niagara-on-the-Lake campus has done for several years now.

What an exciting week in Niagara!  Could anyone have imagined this much investment in the area even ten years ago?  Likely not, but all of these projects will work together to make Niagara an even more attractive destination for those to live, work and play.  What could be better than that?

May 28th, 2011.

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