Event Center design – another version, a different vision 9-21-06

Also See Event Center Design Questioned 8-17-06 Below To Compare Designs

The design of the Event Center in Punta Gorda will set the tone for rebuilding the heart of our city.  It may well be the first major new structure to grace the swath of downtown waterfront property swept clean by Hurricane Charley.

Members of TEAM Punta Gorda, and many others, have been critical of the big-box designs just recently revealed by the County’s design-build team.  They don’t fit into the re-woven fabric of our community.

TEAM Punta Gorda Rendering South View

TEAM has always tried to be part of the solution as we work together to rebuild our city. We have been asked to provide an alternative exterior design to those proffered by the County’s architects.  We’ve done that through a respected architect.  He has shown us that it is how you wrap the exterior of a big box that transforms function on the inside to beauty on the outside.

Working with very basic available information, he has designed a Mission Revival exterior (see accompanying sketches) upon the building footprint drawn by the County’s architects.  The design also would work if the building must be moved away from the river and closer to Retta Esplanade in order to resolve flood zone issues raised by FEMA. Siting the building closer to Retta Esplanade is also suggested in the Citizens’ Master Plan.

This design meets the City’s land development regulations for the central city district.  It also brings to life the vision of so many citizens, stakeholders, and officials who participated in weeklong charettes where they expressed what our rebuilt city should look like, how it could work, and what it could be.

TEAM Punta Gorda Rendering Of North View

We thank those officials who are asking questions and listening to the citizens.

This is an historic opportunity for our city and county to create a fitting gateway to our little city on the river that stretches out to a magnificent harbor which leads to the Gulf of Mexico – a waterfront community with extraordinary potential.

 

Event Center Design Questioned 8-17-06

The architectural renderings of the proposed Event Center are a great disappointment to TEAM Punta Gorda and anyone concerned about the appearance of this “gateway” to historic downtown Punta Gorda. Not only is the exterior design of the Center inconsistent with the vision of the Citizens’ Master Plan, there are serious questions as to whether it even fits into the City's own regulations.

Vibrant, healthy urban centers identify what makes them unique, distinctive and attractive. The Event Center’s unimaginative, big-box design ignores the uniqueness of our city. It will detract from the obvious efforts of our downtown businesses to rebuild with a consistency in visual spirit. It is an affront to those developers who already have committed to erecting buildings that reflect the expressed interests of the community to rebuild itself in the spirit and character of its heritage. And what kind of message does it send to those who might consider investing here in the future?

The County is building the Event Center, but the City can insist on an exterior design of the quality its residents deserve. The City’s land development regulations (LDRs) for new buildings state that to “perpetuate the unique building character of the city and its environs, and to re-establish its local identity, development shall generally employ building types that are compatible to the historic” architecture of the area “in their massing and external treatment.”
 

Public presentation by Harvard-Jolly architects to City of Punta Gorda CRA.
 

The exterior design also rejects the architectural principles embraced in the Citizens’ Master Plan, which so many of you helped to create as a vision of what your community could become following the devastation of Hurricane Charley.

The current exterior design plan will be finalized soon. Our local public officials must realize that this will be a community focal point for generations to come and it should reflect the character of its environment.

Public presentation by Harvard-Jolly architects to City of Punta Gorda CRA.