Event centre committee chair says future arena is ‘not going to look like the Saddledome,’ but will be an iconic replacement nonetheless
More than a year after a funding agreement for the project was first announced, Calgarians will finally see conceptual drawings of the future event centre next week — and will also learn what the $900-million facility will be called.
After Monday’s meeting, Sharp said the plan is to publicly reveal details about the arena’s design at an on-site event.
“There’s lots of excitement around this project,” she told reporters on Wednesday. “I just want to be very mindful (that) the committee meeting still has to happen and we still have to rise and report.”
What is known is that the facility will sit on 10 acres about two blocks north of the Saddledome. An 18,000-seat NHL-regulation arena will be the centrepiece, complemented by indoor and outdoor community plazas, an attached parkade, a future redevelopment site and a new community rink that local sports groups will be able to rent.
The provincial government is contributing $330 million for public realm improvements, including a 6th Street S.E. underpass, public gathering spaces, and upgrades to streets, sidewalks and accesses to the arena. The province is also financing the Saddledome’s demolition.
‘The next iconic building’
Three private corporations have been involved behind the scenes on the project since last year — American firm CAA ICON, which is the development manager for the project, international firm HOK and Calgary-based architecture company Dialog.
HOK and Dialog co-designed Rogers Centre in Edmonton, and they were also both involved in Calgary’s previous arena deal in 2019.
Dialog’s portfolio of other large-scale architectural projects in Calgary include the Central Library in East Village, Telus Sky Building, Calgary Cancer Centre and the University of Calgary’s Mackimmie Tower and Block.
Sharp confirmed the event centre is “not going to look like the Saddledome,” but that it will be an iconic replacement nonetheless.
“What it is going to be is something different; a new building with new memories, and I think that’s what is important,” she said.
“We want to make sure this event centre blends in to what the vision of the Rivers District wants to be. The Saddledome is iconic, so we want to make sure that moving forward, this is the next iconic building in that area.”
Sharp acknowledged that the renderings of the 2019 arena deal received mixed public reactions, but that she hopes Calgarians see more of themselves in the version released Monday.
“I’ve only seen one draft — that was months ago — and I would say Calgarians will be happier to see what this group has brought forward this time,” she said.