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Good things appear to come to those who wait. The Winspear Completion Project came up empty-handed in the 2017 provincial budget, but history won't be repeating itself this year. The latest provincial budget finally has room for the facility's expansion project, allocating $4 million to the cause and pushing the Winspear past the halfway point in funds raised.
The NDP government is also targeting an additional $4 million each for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 budgets, roughly equating to the $13 million Winspear officials had asked for from the province. The City of Edmonton has already committed $13 million towards the $53 million funding goal.
The expansion would take over the existing surface parking lot with 40,000 square feet of mixed-use cultural space, including a new childcare centre. It would contain a 600-seat flex-use acoustic hall, multifunctional spaces and commercial retail built atop an underground parkade. The venue would host community programming offered through the Tommy Banks Centre for Musical Creativity.
Accompanying the announcement is a surprise new rendering showcasing a much different architectural scheme than the more traditional building first proposed by Architecture | Tkalcic Bengert, now under the Stantec banner, and Bing Thom Architects, now rebranded Revery Architecture. The lone illustration shows two shimmering boxes with curved corners defining opposite ends of the property, adjoined to each other by a large glass structure with a canted front wall. It's not clear whether Stantec or Revery are responsible for producing the new vision.
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