The District of Port Hardy has hired an architectural firm to design the newpool complex. “We have secured the architectural design services of HDR/CEI and they are going to work with the community to come up with a concept design of what anew facility might look like and what it might include,” said Chief Administrative Officer Allison McCarrick.
HDR/CEI was selected out of nine applicants. “They were beautiful proposals,” said McCarrick of the competition.
The design will cost about $100,000 which will be funded through CommunityForest funds. The design team is made up of architects, structural engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, civil engineers, and landscape architects.
The team will be coming up to Port Hardy for visits and see what they’ve physically got to work with in terms of the site, and to have little sessions with representatives from various demographic groups (ie. youth,seniors), and stakeholders.
The sessions will not include more than 15 people at a time, McCarrick said. Once all the information is gathered, the design will be made available to the public. “At that point, we’ll be able to have a larger meeting that everyone can attend, and visually show them what it will potentially look like, and whatit will cost,” said McCarrick.
The design that is presented at that time will not be set in stone. “Even at that stage, modifications could still be made based on public input,” she said. Funding for the multiplex is going to include everything from borrowing, to grant funding, to stakeholder funding, to donations, and fund-raising. The district will only proceed with the multiplex if there is a ‘Yes’ vote in a referendum which will happen some time this fall. “Local government can only borrow funds if we have a ‘yes’ vote,” McCarricksaid.
CEI was founded in 1996 and has approximately 70 employees located in British Columbia; its main office is in Vancouver, with additional officesin Victoria and Penticton, as well as Edmonton and Calgary. In 2015 itmerged with HDR which has more than 1,450 architecture employees working inoffices in six countries who provide complete design, engineering, planningand consulting services across the United States, Canada, United ArabEmirates, Germany, Australia, and the People’s Republic of China.
