[Orleans] Shenkman Arts Centre | 20m | 3.5 fl | U/C

[waterloowarrior]

Shenkman Arts Center - U/C
Part of the Orleans Town Center concept, this facillity will house a 500-seat concert hall, among other things
Developer: Orleans Town Center Partnership
Location: Centrum Blvd. in Orleans
Web: http://www.orleansonline.ca/pages/A2006091301.htm
http://www.articipate.ca/en/The_Shenkman_Arts_Centre_21.html
Rendering:
http://www.orleansonline.ca/images/arts_centre_1.jpg

http://www.orleansonline.ca/images/arts_centre_interior.jpg



Ground broken on new arts centre

http://www.eastottawa.ca/article-151040-Ground-broken-on-new-arts-centre.html
by Jim Donnelly (jim.donnelly@transcontinental.ca)
View all articles from Jim Donnelly (http://www.eastottawa.ca/journaliste-536-Jim-Donnelly.html)
Article online since October 24th 2007, 15:30
http://www.eastottawa.ca/imgs/dynamique/articles/gros/arts_centre_construction01.jpg (http://www.eastottawa.ca/imgs/dynamique/articles/gros/arts_centre_construction01.jpg)

Bulldozers started clearing room for the new arts centre building this week. Photo by Darren Brown

Ground broken on new arts centre
Bulldozers have finally broken ground at the site of the future Shenkman Arts Centre, with builders saying a current spate of unseasonably warm weather is helping progress.
“Right now, we’re doing tree removal and picking up some of the overburden, and getting ready to start doing some of the excavation work for the building,” said Toronto-based Aecon Buildings’ Lonny Howard, site supervisor of the project, adding the initial stage will take at least two weeks.

Though he wouldn’t comment on overall project timelines, Howard said the company just moved onto the site late last week. “We’re set up here on-site,” he said from his cell phone. “We have a site office on the north side of the City of Ottawa building (on Centrum Boulevard), and we’ve just moved in ourselves and we’re getting settled in.

“The initial stages are underway, and hopefully this good weather can hold on and we can make some progress.”

Organizers involved with the $37 million public-private partnership between the City of Ottawa and the Orléans Town Centre Partnership, a group of private interests, said they were elated at the news. “Because it’s been such a long time coming, people are still almost incredulous that it’s actually happening,” said Sandra MacInnis, campaign manager of Arts Ottawa East’s “Articipate” fundraising drive.

“It’s very exciting,” she continued. The Articipate campaign has now raised around 70 per cent of its goal of $5 million, with a $1 million donation from the Shenkman Family Foundation, as well as $2.5 million in provincial funding.

“For us out here, this is huge.”

The east-end facility slated for a spring 2009 opening was christened the Shenkman Arts Centre after the the Shenkman Family Foundation’s donation.

some more info
http://www.ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/citycouncil/occ/2006/10-11/csedc/ACS2006-PGM-ECO-0017.htm

[movebyleap]

Has anyone noticed how we always only get to see the facade of this building in all renderings? (This includes the Shenkman website). Is the rest of it so unsightly that it must be kept from us until the building is a done deal?

[Stanz]

As if something like this is being built in Orleans.

[Beatrix]

As if something like this is being built in Orleans.

Well it's about time we get something substantial from the city.

[AuxTown]

Has anyone noticed how we always only get to see the facade of this building in all renderings? (This includes the Shenkman website). Is the rest of it so unsightly that it must be kept from us until the building is a done deal?

That is because the theatre is actually being built into a complex which includes a Super Walmart, Best Buy, and a Loblaws. ;)

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

That is because the theatre is actually being built into a complex which includes a Super Walmart, Best Buy, and a Loblaws. ;)

Are you @#$%ing kidding me?!

[AuxTown]

Are you @#$%ing kidding me?!

Yes

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Yes

Oh, thank God. With this city and the suburbs, ya never know. ;)

Phew, that's a relief...

[Cre47]

That means two Wal-Marts in Orleans, unless they are moving the one on Innes Road, but it's been there for like only two years or something. The invasion of Wal-Mart continues.

[eemy]

That is because the theatre is actually being built into a complex which includes a Super Walmart, Best Buy, and a Loblaws. ;)

Man, you really have to be careful with what you say. :haha:

[Aylmer]

reminds me of the NAC/CNA

[c_speed3108]

Tower Crane is up....:tup:

[c_speed3108]

http://www.articipate.ca/vm/newvisual/attachments/769/documents/Orleans%20Town%20Centre%20Concept%20Plan-web.pdf


Many additional buildings added including a 3 story hotel

two 5 story office buildings

a 12 story seniors condo
a 14 story lux condo

two 8 story affordable apartment buildings

an expansion on the YMCA

and check out building I:

first floor retail
second floor office
thrid floor residental

a number of townhouses and other things...

[c_speed3108]

Floorplans are also up

http://www.articipate.ca/en/More_information_on_the_project_56/Floor_plans_156.html

[c_speed3108]

These pictures happen to suck since I only had a cell phone camera on me...plus they were taken through glass and it was snowing. :slob: But it was a neat shot with the cement boom in the air.

The building sticking up above the Zellers sign is the movie theatres.

The building way in the back right smack in the middle of the picture is a fairly new apartment building. Right behind the constuction is the old Cumberland City Hall. You can see a bit of it's roof.

The peaky looking roof at the left of the shot is a Condo from back in the Cumberland days: Russell Condo #21 (there's a history lesson)


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2413/2332257559_fb4c8f23fb_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3167/2333082684_d555d63a40_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3036/2333082664_09b14c2380_o.jpg

[c_speed3108]

Update here:

Tower Crane is now down.

Road ans sewer constuction behind the Arts Centre, Client Service Centre and the YMCA is underway.

:)

[c_speed3108]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3129/2664700062_17b19c778e_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3119/2664702368_7aeb923b11_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3150/2664704846_4c1ff61c08_o.jpg

[movebyleap]

This theatre was originally going to be an 800 seat venue. A smaller theatre was also to be included in the complex. The city and the company building the project apparently kept cutting the budget for this project until it became a 500 seat theatre. The smaller theatre in this project will now have 100 seats. The problem? Five hundred seats is actually TOO SMALL to attract world class big selling acts. (Note that the very succesful Centrepointe Theatre in Nepean is regularly sold out and has about 750 seats).
At the same time, 500 seats is TOO BIG for community groups who want to stage smaller scale performances.
Meanwhile, the smaller 100 seat theatre is really useless. I'm a music teacher in the east end and with only about 24 students performing I need a theatre that will seat about 150-180 (performers, families, and friends).
There have been some complaints. Ideally they should have stuck with the 800 seat big theatre and a 200 seat smaller venue. But hey, this is Ottawa = NO VISION!!!

[movebyleap]

This theatre was originally going to be an 800 seat venue. A smaller theatre was also to be included in the complex. The city and the company building the project apparently kept cutting the budget for this project until it became a 500 seat theatre. The smaller theatre in this project will now have 100 seats. The problem? Five hundred seats is actually TOO SMALL to attract world class big selling acts. (Note that the very succesful Centrepointe Theatre in Nepean is regularly sold out and has about 750 seats).
At the same time, 500 seats is TOO BIG for community groups who want to stage smaller scale performances.
Meanwhile, the smaller 100 seat theatre is really useless. I'm a music teacher in the east end and with only about 24 students performing I need a theatre that will seat about 150-180 (performers, families, and friends).
There have been some complaints. Ideally they should have stuck with the 800 seat big theatre and a 200 seat smaller venue. But hey, this is Ottawa = NO VISION!!!

[Acajack]

I am really, really glad that Orleans is getting an arts centre. But driving by the site the other day on the 174 I couldn’t help thinking that the big cement block reminded me of the sarcophagus in which the melted-down nuclear reactor at Chernobyl is entombed.

Maybe I’ve got too vivid an imagination…

[c_speed3108]

I am really, really glad that Orleans is getting an arts centre. But driving by the site the other day on the 174 I couldn’t help thinking that the big cement block reminded me of the sarcophagus in which the melted-down nuclear reactor at Chernobyl is entombed.

Maybe I’ve got too vivid an imagination…

It is being built to contain the radioactive fallout from the council of the former City of Cumberland. :haha:

[movebyleap]

That's why I was concerned that we were only being shown the FRONT of this building in all the architectural renderings!!

[c_speed3108]

Bronze piano set to adorn Shenkman Arts Centre plaza
City announces winner of public art contest
Patricia Lonergan by Patricia Lonergan

Article online since July 23rd 2008, 14:23

The outdoor plaza at the Shenkman Arts Centre will feature a bronze piano on a stage by artist Maskull Lasserre.

The piece will rest in the 1,300-square-metre plaza facing Centrum Boulevard, which is the heart of the new Orléans Town Centre.

Lasserre’s sculpture consists of an upright piano made from hammered bronze and stainless steel accompanied by a partially-carved piano stool in a limestone boulder. Both the piano and the boulder will rest on a concrete pad in the shape of a stage.

According to the artist, the stage will encourage patrons to “participate in the work as a site of material meditation, or as a permanent prop in an outdoor performance.”

In an earlier interview Lasserre noted that the stool carved into the rock allows people to take a seat at the instrument as if participating in a performance.

“(It’s) inviting in some way,” he explained. “It’s not building jewellery.”

A bronze and stainless steel reproduction of the original boulder will also rest on the plaza surface just off to the side.

“This sculpture is going to be a central feature of what I know is going to become a gathering place in Orléans,” said Coun. Bob Monette in a press release.

The two-stage competition for a public art installation at the Shenkman Arts Centre Plaza included such selection criteria as artistic excellence, experience, site integration, reflection of the community and sustainability.

The Orléans community was given a preview of the submissions from the finalists including Karl Ciesluk, Maskull Lasserre, Jennifer Macklem, and Jean-Yves Vigneau. The public was asked to record comments about the four artists’ proposals. The art selection committee took these comments into consideration when selecting the winner.


http://www.eastottawa.ca/imgs/dynamique/articles/gros/p03_Maskull_Lasserre02.jpg.

[TransitZilla]

http://www.eastottawa.ca/imgs/dynamique/articles/gros/p03_Maskull_Lasserre02.jpg.

Here's a better picture, and it shows how this will be placed in the forecourt of the building:

http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/arts/public_art/commissions/upcoming_commissions/shenkman_en.html

[c_speed3108]

http://www.eastottawa.ca/imgs/dynamique/articles/gros/p05_Orleans_Theatre.jpg

http://www.eastottawa.ca/article-217509-Chamber-cash-to-support-arts-centre.html

Chamber cash to support arts centre
by Laura Cummings
View all articles from Laura Cummings
Article online since May 29th 2008, 13:38


The east end's upcoming arts facility got a financial boost from its business neighbours last week, in a bid to further establish a link between arts and economics in the area.

The Orléans Chamber of Commerce has committed to donating $10,000 over five years to the Shenkman Arts Centre, becoming the first 'corporate community builder' in the facility's fundraising campaign, Arts Ottawa East announced Friday, May 16.

The ARTicipate! campaign, which was launched in September with a goal of $5 million, directs all money raised into an endowment fund meant to maintain sustainable arts and culture programming in the community, in addition to supporting the Shenkman Arts Centre's partners and other local initiatives.

The chamber will divert $2,000 a year to the facility over a five-year period, explains executive director Peter Stewart, with money for the initiative raised via a new partnership with the Ottawa Senators.

Chamber members now have access to seats at Senators games at season ticket prices, he continues, accompanied by a slight surcharge that will comprise the $10,000 donation.

With the business organization looking to extend more opportunities to its members and the Senators aiming to "get a foothold in the community," Stewart says the timing was perfect for the collaboration.

Feedback from membership has been "excellent" so far, he adds, with over half of this year's tickets sold in the two weeks since the initiative's announcement.

Though the upcoming arts centre is viewed as "an economic development tool" by the chamber – another feature to attract business and generate revenue in the east end – many of the smaller members cannot make a corporate-sized donation themselves, Stewart explains.

Beyond acting as an opportunity to support east-end arts, the ticket initiative also offers a chance for member businesses to reward employees, give something to customers or network amongst themselves, he says.

"It's the sort of tool small business would like to tap into," Stewart continues.

Arts Ottawa East was "thrilled" to hear about the chamber's donation, adds Sandra MacInnis, campaign manager for the ARTicipate! campaign.

"Everyone is aware of the economic impact of the arts centre, and for our own chamber of commerce to be the first to give on that level … is really pretty telling," she explains, adding that the endowment fund is already well over 70 per cent of its total goal.

The chamber has shown leadership in recognizing the important connection between economics and the arts in the east end, MacInnis continues, and how the new facility could prove to be an economic generator for the area.

"It all goes to creating a climate of confidence around the arts centre," she says.
.

[waterloowarrior]

http://wwuploads.googlepages.com/orleanstowncentre_shenkman.jpg

[waterloowarrior]

New east-end arts centre hits home stretch amid proposed city funding cuts
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 | 2:51 PM ET Comments0Recommend2
CBC News
Construction of the Shenkman Arts Centre is mostly complete and the building is set to open in May.
The opening of a new arts centre in Ottawa's east end is in sight even as some arts groups worry that there will be a shortage of equipment and programs to fill it due to proposed city funding cuts.

The Shenkman Arts Centre announced Monday that it had reached 82 per cent of its $5- million endowment fundraising goal, thanks to four major donors, and is on track to open in May.

The fund will support arts activities at the centre.

Construction of the new facility just east of Place d'Orléans shopping centre is mostly complete. Inside will be a 500-seat theatre, two art galleries, a dance studio, a music rehearsal room, woodworking and pottery studios, a dark room and walls lined with art.

But Rosemary Swan, director of the Gloucester Pottery School, said she's concerned her group won't be able to properly use the space it's assigned, which includes room for extra pottery rules and another kiln.

Under cuts proposed in the city's draft budget, her school would lose $20,000 in annual funding, meaning there will be no new equipment to accommodate more potters, she said.

She said it's not prudent for the city to cut funding to arts programs at a time when there is a "wonderful facility" to arts programs and people willing to do the programming.

"No, that does not make sense and it won't make many people happy," she said.

Existing funding will likely continue: councillor

Innes ward Coun. Rainer Bloess suggested Monday that arts groups shouldn't lose hope.

He said he met with some groups a few days ago and had some good discussions about what kind of compromises need to be made.

"I think in the end you're going to see the funding that's in place will continue," he said. "But we'll defer the increases they were looking for."

The Shenkman centre's endowment fund now sits at $4.1 million, including $2.5 million from the Ontario government and $1 million from the Shenkman family. The fund announced Monday that it had recently received $250,000 from Minto, $250,000 from Trinity Development Foundation, $25,000 from MBNA Bank of America and $25,000 from Bel-Air Toyota.

The centre is being built as a public-private partnership between the city and the Orléans Town Centre Partnership consortium.

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2008/11/25/ot-081125-shenkman-arts-top.jpg

[Beatrix]

It's nice, but I wish they had done something with the back ( which faces the 417). It looks like a giant brick wall.

[drizzo_613]

I took a few photos of some of the developments in Orleans today, including Shenkman and Petrie, but I don't know how to post the photos onto the forum. I have never used flickr or photobucket, so can anyone help?

[Mille Sabords]

I took a few photos of some of the developments in Orleans today, including Shenkman and Petrie, but I don't know how to post the photos onto the forum. I have never used flickr or photobucket, so can anyone help?

I'll send you a PM in a sec.

[drizzo_613]

Here's an cellphone pic i took from last week. The 'Blank' wall on the other side actually has a big Shenkman Arts Logo across it. They definately could have tried harder though..

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3636/3344665458_0e99c4c3b9_b.jpg

Anyone know when the rest of the Centrum construction will begin? I can't wait to see what it will look like once completed. Here's a pic of what the condos around there look like for those who don't know..

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3381/3344665528_5c21ea978b_b.jpg

[Acajack]

I lived in Orleans for many years and always thought the Centrum area had lots of potential to become a reasonably handsome, pseudo-urban district for the area. Hopefully all of the mega-developments that have been built or approved for the Innes corridor won’t kill off what’s already on and around St-Joseph (of which Centrum is a part). The arts centre is an excellent step – there’s nowhere else to go for arts in the entire area so no way around it there.

But it’s too bad the cinema traffic will soon be going away from Centrum south to Innes (I presume that’s still on). The combination of a performing arts centre and cinemas in the area would have generated a lot of good traffic.

[c_speed3108]

Grand opening festivities June 18 to 21....


http://www.shenkmanarts.ca

some pics on that site...

[c_speed3108]

Open!

Opening night in Orléans

By Tony Lofaro, The Ottawa Citizen June 6, 2009

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.ottawacitizen.com/news/opening+night+orl%C3%A9ans/1669201/1670370.bin?size=620x400

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.ottawacitizen.com/news/opening+night+orl%C3%A9ans/1669201/1669202.bin?size=620x400

At long last, the city's east side has what it's been waiting for -- a premium arts facility of its own. Tony Lofaro was there

for its debut show.

The Shenkman Arts Centre in Orléans opened with little fanfare Friday night, providing community arts groups with a new venue and fulfilling a long-held desire to bring an arts facility to a largely neglected part of town.

Located on Centrum Boulevard near the Place d'Orléans Shopping Centre, the 86,000-square-foot facility stands out as a beacon among the convenience stores, shops and restaurants on the city's east side. Its sweeping exterior design and large, laminated coloured-glass panels offer an inviting view from the street, even though a few inside touch-ups remain to be done and the landscaping is incomplete.

But when it's spruced up for its official opening on June 18, city officials and theatregoers hope the centre will bring a cultural revival to the area.

"The first thing you notice is how much leg room you have, it's very spacious," said Nathalie Kehoe, sitting in the second row with her husband, Kevin. "I was looking around and it looks like every seat in the house is a good one."

Councillor Rainer Bloess said the Shenkman Arts Centre is serving as the "catalyst" to spur further development in Orléans.

"This is an opportunity to move the Orléans Town Centre development," the Innes councillor said. "This is only a piece of the quarter-billion dollar development that is planned for that area, but it's the catalyst to make things happen because things have stagnated there."

"I think we've found an innovative way of bringing about the arts facility that we've talked about for 20 years or so and never had the means or money to do it. The opportunity was there with the new city to try and pull this all together."

Bloess said arts groups are "pumped up" about the centre.

"They finally get a facility of their own. They've been very fragmented out there, spread out over different buildings and locations and most of those locations weren't all that adequate."

The $37-million project, which includes a 505-seat theatre, a 100-seat Black Box studio theatre, two art galleries and instructional and rehearsal spaces for visual, media and performing arts, is a public-private partnership between the City of Ottawa and its private-sector partner.

Toronto comedian Sean Cullen opened the theatre Friday night with an amusing 90-minute show that had the near-capacity crowd in stitches.

"Hey, Shenkmanites, how ya doing? How do you like those seats right down in front," quipped Cullen, who called the theatre "a beautiful building."

At 500 seats, the theatre seems much larger than it is. Its muted earth tones on the walls and carpet give the facility a warm, inviting feel that makes it a cosy spot to watch a performance. The sightlines are good and the beige cloth seats are comfortable. The theatre is also accessible.

Visitors enter the building from the rear parking lot or from street-level. A winding staircase leads to the lower level, where there are small art galleries, office space, a bar, a ticket booth and other amenities.

Charles McFarland, the city's artistic producer and program manager, theatre, said the arts centre is a welcome addition to the area's performing arts halls. He said he sees the centre as the next venue for many performers who are too big to play the club scene.

"Now that there's two theatres, Centrepointe and Shenkman, there's a continuum, certainly in the music business from the bar bands, to the club bands, and the next step is here and perhaps in a slightly different market."

"What it's really doing is filling a gap in the continuum from how artists get their beginnings and then move up into bigger venues."

He said the centre is an "acoustically tuned hall," something that the older Centrepointe Theatre is no longer able to do. It basically means the theatre is sealed acoustically when the acoustic panels on the walls are closed, allowing for an "unamplified" sound in chamber music concerts or live performances. A more amplified or louder sound -- needed mostly for rock shows -- is achieved when the panels are opened to absorb more of the sound.

"It's very rare for it happen in a theatre of 500 seats. It usually goes on in a much bigger space," McFarland said.

Peter Stewart, executive director of the Orléans Chamber of Commerce, said the centre is a "big plus" for east-side residents who have long craved the kind of community-based theatre complex that other Ottawa residents already enjoy.

"It's meeting our own residents' needs and provides them with a local theatre facility that will provide the shows that might go elsewhere," Stewart said. "It keeps money in our community, keeps our residents a little more local, while bringing in residents from the rest of the city."

The centre is a much smaller facility and was designed primarily to complement the NAC and Centrepointe, not compete with them, he said.

Stewart said in the past, a much smaller 200-seat theatre in the adjacent Orléans Client Service Centre building was used by the Township of Cumberland for council meetings, but it doesn't have the "bells and whistles" that the Shenkman Arts Centre does.

"The centre is another piece of the puzzle. From the chamber's point of view, we're concerned about economic development, getting more business out here and getting the residents of Orléans to live and work in their community to cut down some of the traffic going downtown all the time.

"Now we're entering the big leagues, in a way."
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

[rocketphish]

Is it time to change the title on this thread from U/C to Completed?

[waterloowarrior]

a few photos from today reposted from the photothread

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3301/3623259689_eb3b046b94_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2472/3623263387_daa65c55a0_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3624082964_7a699df3ba_b.jpg

[adam-machiavelli]

Ok, I'll be honest here but the inside is ugly. It looks like a cheaply built high school or university arts building.

The Shenkman Arts Centre is appropriate for Orleans because its big-box visual arts space. The lobby's exposed-duct ceiling and simple finishes exemplifies this cheap, throw-it-up/tear-it-down aesthetic.

[waterloowarrior]

Maria Cook has a few interview with the developer, builder, and city manager

http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/designingottawa/archive/2009/06/14/interview-with-shenkman-arts-centre-developer.aspx

http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/designingottawa/archive/2009/06/14/interview-with-shenkman-arts-centre-builder-quot-we-built-the-theatre-into-the-rock-quot.aspx

http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/designingottawa/archive/2009/06/14/interview-with-city-s-p3-manager-on-shenkman-mixed-use-will-be-tough.aspx

[c_speed3108]

Completed...long ago.