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The Francis Winspear Centre for Music, long a cornerstone of Edmonton's downtown Arts District, is moving forward with a major expansion project. The Winspear Completion Project, which obtained a funding commitment from the province in March last year, has received a rezoning approval by City Council and a development permit from the City of Edmonton, with its groundbreaking now set for May 21.
The project has undergone numerous design iterations since its inception, starting with early conceptual designs by Revery Architecture (formerly Bing Thom Arcitects), and one particularly unusual design by Andrew Bromberg at Aedas dubbed by project insiders as "the silver mushrooms." The final design by Andrew Bromberg at Aedas shows a simplified building with a distinctive swooping stone-clad roof over clear-glazed walls.
The new building will fill in a surface parking lot on 97 Street between 102 and 102a Avenues, connecting to the existing concert hall to the west. It adds 40,000 square feet of cultural space including a new 600-seat acoustic hall, a recording studio, a music library, a daycare, and the potential for additional retail uses at street-level. A publicly-accessible terrace and green roof overlooks the corner of 97 Street and 102 Avenue.
The project also includes the construction of a new district energy plant at the north end of the site. To be built and operated in partnership with Enmax, the plant will provide a boiler system which new and existing downtown buildings can tie into as a more efficient source of heat. Construction on the entire expansion is expected to begin in the fall.
SkyriseEdmonton will continue to follow this expansion as it progresses. What do you think of the Winspear Completion Project? Let us know in the comments below, or join the conversation in our discussion forum. Additional images and renders can be found in the project database.
UPDATE (July 2, 2019): A previous version of this article credited the project architects as Aedas and Revery Architecture. The article has been updated to correctly list Andrew Bromberg at Aedas as the architect, and clarified that Revery was only involved in the earliest conceptual designs.
