Vail center presentation this week

Daily
September 20, 2004

VAIL - Three site plan concepts for Vail's new conference center will be presented at two public meetings today and Wednesday.

Fentress Bradburn Architects Inc., the firm that will design the conference center, will make the first presentation to the Vail Town Council as part of its work session at 8:30 a.m. today in the Town Council Chambers. Planning and Environmental Commission (PEC) and Design Review Board (DRB) members will join the council for the presentation.

On Wednesday, an open house will be held in the Community Room of the Vail Library from 4 to 6:30 p.m., which will include a 30-minute presentation on the three site plan concepts at 5:15 p.m.

The concepts will illustrate different access, parking and circulation, building orientation, streetscape and transit facility possibilities based on the results of Fentress Bradburn's study of the site and input gathered at stakeholder and community meetings held earlier this summer.

See Center, page A9

Child care will be provided by the town of Vail for children ages 1 to 6 years at the library during the Wednesday evening open house from 5 to 6:30 p.m. A maximum of 10 children at a time can be accommodated, officials said.

Following the two meetings, the design team will use the input to begin to refine the site plans into a preferred option. Additional public meetings will be scheduled as the site plan evolves. The conference center project schedule calls for the approval of a master site plan by the Vail Town Council in October.

Also under way in the conference center project process is the selection of a general contractor, planned to occur in December. The project schedule calls for construction to begin in 2005 and ready for its first booking in October 2006.

Voters approved increases in Vail lodging and sales taxes in November 2002 to fund the conference center. The 100,000 square foot facility, which will be located just east of the LionsHead parking structure, will cost approximately $42.5 million. More information on the conference center can be found at www.vailgov.com under Current Projects/Issues - Conference Center.