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Another Games legacy takes shape

Whistler Olympic Plaza’s Performance pavilion may host regular markets, outdoor concerts and festivals
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If construction wraps up at Whistler Olympic Plaza (also known under the Games-time moniker of Celebration Plaza) in the spring, the community will have a new arts and cultural hub at its disposal next summer.

Doti Niedermayer, executive director of the Whistler Arts Council (WAC), envisions the new site opening up a "whole new world of possibility" in terms of bringing local artists and artisans into the village. And without adding significantly to WAC's already stretched operating budget.

"I've seen the design go through some changes and some various additions," Niedermayer said. "I've kind of had an idea of what we'd want to use it for, and also what the arts community would want to use it for. For us, that's always been really exciting because given that it would be a space that is run by the municipality, we would be able to implement things like a Thursday night farmers market or craft fair."

Over the years, the arts council has seen a lot of demand from local artists and artisans interested in expanding the Sunday Farmers Market to a regular weeknight market in the summer.

"There is no space for that," Niedermayer said. "It doesn't really work anywhere else. You can't do it in Village Square, you can't really do it in Skier's Plaza, so the Olympic Plaza has always been, for us, the new space that could house that kind of thing."

A regular summer market would create animation at another end of the village while giving visitors the opportunity to connect with local artists and artisans.

After numerous revisions and brainstorming sessions with community stakeholders over the years (original plans included an outdoor skating rink, buildings for artisans and an ambitious iconic roof structure), Whistler Olympic Plaza will feature an open grass lawn, performance pavilion, outdoor performance spaces, an accessible playground and public art celebrating the 2010 Winter Games.

"This is the outcome of a long process that involved the community and the merchants and all sorts of advisory committees," said Jan Jansen, General Manager of Resort Experience for the Resort Municipality of Whistler. "So we've got a space that is really programmatically flexible and is going to accommodate a number of uses."

The overall budget for the plaza is $13.67 million, with $4.2 million coming from VANOC, $5 million from the Government of Canada, $ 4.02 million from the RMOW through the hotel tax, and $450,000 from private and charitable organizations.

At a council meeting in June Martin Pardoe, RMOW's Manager of Resort Parks and Open Space Planning, described the site as having one of the most advanced outdoor performance venues west of Toronto. This performance pavilion will have two stages, one large and one small, under a roof. It will accommodate 650 people sitting or 3,000 people standing.

"Those stages are not permanently in place," Jansen said. "We have a site that can be configured in a number of different ways to accommodate different functions."

There will be a "green room" for performers, washrooms and concessions. All infrastructure and wiring is in place on the site and it's designed to be used with equipment that can be supplied within Whistler. That means it will be much easier for groups like WAC to bring in performers and stage shows.

Fibre optic and electrical networks were installed throughout the village for the Olympics. The performance pavilion will have patch panels and electrical panels in place near the stage, so producers can easily plug in.

"And it's that infrastructure that gives us a real advantage," Jansen said.

Neidermayer agrees. She also sees great potential for hosting outdoor concerts during the summer.

"We've worked in the past with Festival Vancouver and tried to work with the Jazz Festival and the Folk Festival in Vancouver. They bring in national and international touring bands from across Canada and all over the world, and they're always eager to work with us," she said.

"The problem we've had in the past when we've worked with groups like Festival Vancouver is if it's a really sunny afternoon or evening, nobody wants to come inside!"

For outdoor performances the arts council has had to build a stage and bring in the sound equipment, which becomes an onerous, expensive ordeal.

Next summer, with the plaza, will be different.

"Here's an opportunity for us, if there is some infrastructure over there, we can just start having these kinds of partnerships with the Lower Mainland festivals and present it in the park or in the outdoors," said Neidermayer.

"Given that there will be basic sound and lights and a stage that will be built into the space, this then enables us to go in with minimal costs, bring in a little bit of sound equipment, pay the artists' fee and, actually for not a lot of money, present a great group from Australia, from Italy... I mean they come from all over! It's not the talent we're missing, it's really a place and the financial ability to put them on."

The RMOW hasn't ironed out details of the business model yet, so Niedermayer isn't sure how much it will cost the arts council to use the site.

While WAC hasn't started programming for that site yet, Niedermayer said they could start booking for the space "at the drop of a hat."

"If we knew in February that this was going to be ready to go, we would actually be able to start working with (Lower Mainland festivals), because they're already programmed. That's the whole thing: we're not trying to create new programming, we're piggybacking on partners that we have in the Lower Mainland."

Jansen is reluctant to reveal how much of the $13.67 million budget was set aside for the performance pavilion, as the RMOW is about to release the tender and wants to ensure the bidding process is competitive.

But converting Celebration Plaza, home to many victory ceremonies and concerts during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, into the new Whistler Olympic Plaza, a public gathering and event space, is a gradual process.

The municipality decided to tackle the project in phases. The first was VANOC's site remediation, which involved asphalt removal, re-grading and placing gravel pre-load materials on the site of the future performance pavilion, north of the Brewpub. When that portion of the project wrapped up they moved on to relocating washroom services closer to the playground and creating an interim Games memories area on Village Stroll.

This fall will see a flurry of activity. The pre-load material will be removed, the "great lawn" seeded, the accessible playground expanded, the Olympic cauldron relocated, seating steps installed, some reforesting and other landscaping will be done and Village Stroll will be extended. In about one week, they'll also be tendering for shallow services and foundations for the performance pavilion.

This sequential completion of the site allows the periphery of the area to be used by the public while the performance pavilion is still under construction.

"So the most complex piece and the one that takes the longest to construct, the pavilion, is really situated in the corner of the site, so we're able to open up areas as we progressively complete them," Jansen explained.

So far, Jansen said the project is on schedule and on budget.

The plaza will also feature a visual arts component, a $200,000 Whistler Games Legacy Arts Project that is being commissioned by the RMOW public arts committee. A call for proposals for a "signature piece" of public art was issued earlier this summer. The piece will feature the three Olympic pillars, sport, culture and sustainability, while also capturing the spirit and emotion of the Games. The competition closes Monday, Aug. 23. The piece will be installed in 2011.