Facing the music: bids sought to assess concert hall

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This article was published 22/01/2021 (2061 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba government wants to ensure the Centennial Concert Hall survives for another 30 years.

It has issued a request for proposals that invites companies to bid on a building condition assessment contract for the Main Street facility. It seeks recommendations on repairs and maintenance to preserve the concert hall and a time line for when that work is needed.

The process will include an assessment of structural, electrical, acoustic and staging components and also look at life safety systems, accessibility, and building code requirements, the RFP notes.

“It’s going to look at really the bones of the facility to see really where the deficiencies are, where the life cycles have come to an end and where the province, to make it last another 30 years, needs to make investments,” said Robert Olson, chief executive officer of the Manitoba Centennial Centre Corp., which operates the hall.

Many of the potential changes wouldn’t be cosmetic, so the building won’t necessarily look different, if the province funds the recommended work. Potential upgrades could alter the hall’s acoustics, however, and help the site attract more shows, said Olson.

“Some of that stuff (would) make the concert hall way more efficient and way more viable for today’s producers,” he said.

Despite the likely need for some update, Olson said Winnipeggers can rest assured the hall was “extremely well built” before it opened in 1968.

He said the building deserves attention, though, as one of Manitoba’s largest entertainment and event gathering spaces.

“This (building) plays a central role, I think, in the social fabric of the province,” he said.

The province will pay up to $250,000 for the building assessment contract, which it expects will be completed by the end of March.

In an email, Central Services Minister Reg Helwer called the concert hall an important Winnipeg landmark.

“We need to make investments to preserve the venue and maintain it for the artists who perform there and the many thousands of people who visit each year,” wrote Helwer.

The minister said assessing the building now, while code red pandemic restrictions have forced it to close, means the assessment won’t disrupt its operations.

Joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga