[mylesmalley]

The room was indeed packed!

I think it's important to remember that these were concept plans, not proposals. That said, there was clearly a lot of creativity put into these designs. My personal favourite was the Architecture 2000 one. I like the look of the arena component the best of the proposals, and it includes a real transit focus. That plan is also the most ambitious in my opinion, but almost certainly the most expensive too.

The thing I'm most happy about is the fact that all of the plans aim to rejuvenate the Main street facade. I expected some kind of mixed use development in the triangular area next to the tracks, but I figured at least some part of the street front would be taken up by the walls of the arena.

I'm not sure about the practicality of integrating residential directly into the events centre building, but it's an interesting concept nonetheless. I wonder if there's any precedence for that type of thing?