Taché Hall makeover nears completion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/04/2015 (4075 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

University of Manitoba’s Taché Hall is expected to be unveiled as a visual and performing arts hub this fall but instead of celebrating the fact, the players involved are oddly silent.

The over-100-year-old former student residence will open as the new home of the Marcel A. Desautels Faculty of Music this September.

It should be a welcome change.

The university’s original music building, which opened in 1966 was designed for 60 students and the faculty now has more than 300 students housed in eight buildings across campus. There’ll be plenty more elbow room with the redevelopment of 68,000 square-feet of Taché Hall, along with 90,000 square-feet of new construction.

A U of M fact sheet reveals facilities will include:

• The 500-seat Marcel A. Desautels Auditorium, a concert hall designed to accommodate performances from solo recitals to opera productions;
• Music rehearsal spaces;
• 40 practice rooms;
• An electro-acoustic studio;
• A multimedia studio;
• Keyboard labs;
• A music library;
• Large and medium classrooms, seminar rooms;
• Faculty studios

The overall Taché Arts Project brings the university’s music faculty, theatre program and art school together at one site. The Art Research Technology lab (ARTlab), adjacent to Taché Hall, officially opened its doors to the School of Art on Feb. 27, 2012, and the two buildings will be connected by a pedestrian overpass.

Taché Auditorium is being reinvented as the 150-seat Conklin Hall Theatre — becoming the future home of the Black Hole Theatre Company — and will include a full workshop, prop shop and costume area.

The project hasn’t been without its share of hiccups.

Stuart Olson Dominion Construction was awarded the $60 million demolition and construction contract in August 2011 but received a contract termination notice from the U of M February 2013. Bird Construction now leads the project. Neither company would comment on any construction details.

Bird’s current project manager, Aloke Rajbhandary, was previously project manager for Stuart Olson but, according to his LinkedIn profile, he joined Bird one month after Stuart Olson’s contract was terminated. He couldn’t be reached for comment.

The Tache Arts Project’s deadline has been something of a moving goalpost. Construction was originally expected to be complete by July 2014. This moved to December 2014 before moving again to September 2015.

A U of M spokesperson was unavailable for comment.

Richard Kamchen is a community correspondent for Fort Richmond.