The plans for a new multiplex in Humboldt are going forward as the city presented new plans at a public meeting on Nov. 17.
The plans were designed by the P3 architecture firm out of Regina and were developed by meetings with key community stakeholders, including city staff and sports and culture groups.
The public meeting gave people free reign to look at posters of what was developed and leave comments for the design team.
P3A lead architect, James Youck, says presenting the project this way provided them with a lot of feedback from the public.
“It gets us engaging people on the ground, we get to have a conversation with them but it also gives people an avenue to come ing and see the work that’s being done.”
All the feedback will go in to shaping the project, says Youck. This early in the pre-design portion of the project is a great opportunity to get this type of feedback.
Youck says the feedback him and his team have been getting has been overwhelmingly positive.
“There is a real culture of engagement in the community...(they’re) very interested in this.”
The biggest concern Youck is hearing, just like everywhere else he’s designed is how the city is going to pay for it.
This is a valid concern he says but other than that people are saying they want what P3A is bringing in.
“People are saying they want that indoor soccer facility, we want it to be multipurpose, we want to be able to use for all sorts of events.” Says Youck.
Youck has also said he’s hearing a lot of possible feedback as to the location of the facility.
All the new additions will be added on to the current Uniplex with connection being included in the plans.
Current additions include a soccer field and gymnastics area, locker rooms, auditorium and lobby area.
The biggest factor for discussion has become where to have the soccer field; the north or south sides of the current arena.
Kevin Kalthoff with the Humboldt Curling club says he’s concerned about the way the soccer field would be situated on the south side of the arena. Parking for the curling club is already scarce.
“If the fieldhouse would come on the south side of us, we’d lose our whole parking lot and then everyone would have to come from fairly far distance to get into the curling rink.”
Kalthoff is getting complaints already he says that the parking lot on the south side of the building is too small and is always full.
Besides an issue of parking, a south side soccer indoor soccer area would also take away access to the curling club during the summer when they use the curling rink to hold public events.
“If they ever want to have anything where they have to drive vehicles into the curling rink through the big doors, they won’t be able to do that anymore.”
Youck says they will be being careful going forward. What they’ve done is throw ideas on the table
“Resolving the relationship between outdoor play areas, parking, outdoor soccer pitches and indoor circulation...is a real challenge.”
Mechanically and electrically, there has been an assessment on the current structure and any additions made to the facility will have their own stand alone system.
“The systems that are here now are just capable of managing the building as it is.” Says Youck.
Bronco’s Jamie Brockman and Devin Cannon are excited for the new space and have plenty of things they want to see for the hometown hockey team. Office space, an offical Broncos kyosk and even some box seating would be interesting additions to the arena area, says Brockman.
One of the concerns they have is entrance and exit points.
Turning entrance/exit points into either entrance or exits would be ideal with the additions being added on, says Cannon.
Having a feildhouse and more fitness space fits the natural flow from ice surface to training areas, he says.
Through online surveys, an information gathering session at registration night in September and design meetings with key stakeholders, Youck says that they seems to have most of what people want to see for the facility.
What is happening now is a refinement of those ideas.
“There are very few gaps in what we’re providing,” says Youck.
