SR 06:012 - Laserfiche WebLink

Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council: BACKGROUND At a joint workshop with the Civic Arts Commission on September 6, 2005, the City Council reviewed the proposed conceptual and schematic design for the Firehouse Arts Center. Kurt Schindler and Ed Noland, project consultants with ELS Architecture and Urban Design, presented the concepts as developed by the Firehouse Arts Center Task Force, and supported by the Civic Arts Commission. The design envisions the adaptive reuse of the historical 1929 Firehouse building located at 4444 Railroad Avenue, and reflects the arts related programming of the facility as suggested by the Downtown Parks and Trails Master Plan and Downtown Specific Plan. Those plans, and subsequent discussions by the Firehouse Arts Center Task Force, confirmed the programming and proposed amenities for the building: a small theater (240 seats) that would support youth and family theater, small dramatic productions, chamber music, lectures, and other culturally related events; an art gallery that could support local artists and works produced by regionally and nationally known artists; classrooms which could be dedicated to arts related activities and workshops; and, related supporting facilities such as a lobby, box office, restrooms, storage and maintenance areas, dressing rooms, and staff offices. The project consultants also reviewed the estimated costs of the proposed facility, developed in April, 2005 by the firm of Davis Langdon Adamson. Construction costs at that time were estimated at $8.444 million. The City Council had previously authorized $6 million for the project, with $750,000 for design and preparation of construction documents. This left a funding shortfall at that time of approximately $3.2 million. The Civic Arts Commission had recommended that the project be constructed as described in the original conceptual and schematic design. The Commissioners felt that any realistic savings in exterior treatments and modest reductions in overall square footage or building height ($500,000) were insignificant over the lifetime of the facility. In addition, any major savings realized by eliminating a major component of the plan (i.e. art gallery) would destroy the intended purpose and essence of the facility. Greg Reznick, President of the Pleasanton Cultural Arts Foundation, addressed the Council and Commission and reaffirmed his organization's intent to raise the remaining funds needed to complete the project. It was also pointed out that other relevant City commissions (Parks and Recreation, Youth, and Planning) had not yet reviewed nor provided comments on the proposed design. This was done to allow the Council to review the project, its design and funding challenges, and to provide staff direction on how to proceed. After accepting public comments and hearing from Civic Arts Commissioners, the Council requested that the consultants return at a subsequent City Council meeting with updated cost SR 06:012 Page 2