Civic Surrey has obtained images from the new City Centre brochure, to be distributed to the public and media next Tuesday, when the final design for the new City Hall building will be presented.
Beyond the previously announced details, City Hall will be a two-phased building, with the second phase seemingly planned to include the hotel/office tower component. The Performing Arts Centre, planned to start construction after City Hall Phase 1 ends in 2013, does not have a final design yet. The previously mentioned Museum does not appear to be part of the plan anymore. Furthermore, the long rumoured SFU expansion space is mentioned in the brochure to be included in the Library, although that seems doubtful unless the university plans to rent the initially-empty fifth floor.
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Awesome job Paul. Nice to see a local blogger get the scoop over the big media outlets that have ceased doing real journalism. Surrey had better keep their eyes out for Paul Hillsdon
Looks great. Congrats on the scoop!
Sorry if this has been answered, but what will happen to the old city hall site on Hwy 10?
@mezzanine. Options discussed have included both lease and sale of the buildings and land. I assume we’ll learn more about that on Tuesday and in the years to come. The area could certainly be turned into a police precinct.
So I take it nothing about the SCTV was really mentioned at all in this announcement =\
What were you looking to find out? Maybe I can get some answers for ya.
So, the community plaza goes in between the two phases of the building? It seem’s like an odd area to put it in, though perhaps it will be better in person. Just to ask, is there any plan on establishing some kind of permanent event venue? Holland Park has been used several times for concerts, but I can’t imagine that becoming anything permanent due to the amount of housing in the area. It would make sense to put some kind of venue in the downtown area, so is the community plaza their version of that?
Also, does anyone know what’s happening with all the space in between the buildings? I’m sure it’s been mentioned before, but I can’t get all the different blueprints for the area aligned in my head.
Basically, the community plaza will be surrounded by the Library on the west, City Hall on the North, and the future Performing Arts Centre on the east. The North Surrey Rec Centre will remain to the south until it gets demolished, although it is unknown as to when that’ll happen. The City would have to replace all the lost recreation space elsewhere before I could see it occurring.
Events that have been held at Central City Plaza will likely shift to the community plaza as the land will be public, requiring one less level of bureaucracy. The private ownership of Central City Plaza is actually a significant deterrent from the use of that space by community groups, meaning there’ll likely be more community events at this new public space.
There may be concerts. It can hold 5000 people. Anything larger though and it will be in Holland Park. Fusion Festival, which attracts 60,000 people over two days is just too large to ever be in a small plaza. Even with residential housing, the events in Holland Park are one of the chief attractions of the area right now, and people who buy into the area should understand this before committing down money.
By the way, this is the final layout for the plaza, City Hall, and the Library. Anything beyond that could change, but for now, those three aspects are concrete.
@Matt
Just imagine the current Central City plaza, but extended thru/past the rec centre, by the new library, to the new city hall.
Its a pretty good design in my mind. Patterns very well to similar to great piazzas and squares around the world. It can be the real central heart and gathering space for the community and the city.
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