By Mary Hladky
Plans to build a performing arts complex on city-owned land in Mizner Park hit a roadblock on Sept. 23 when Boca Raton City Council members unanimously delayed a key vote for one month so that city staff can hire a consultant to evaluate the project’s feasibility.
Under a 2022 agreement between the city and The Center for Arts and Innovation, the city must approve revised project plans by Oct. 21. If that deadline is missed, the agreement would be terminated unless the city and TCAI agree to an extension.
Council members balked at approving the new plans after city staffers spelled out concerns they have about some of the changes. But staff members said those issues could be worked out over the next two years before the next deadline — this one for final project approval — and recommended that the council allow the project to go forward.
Those changes, made after TCAI selected the renowned architectural firm Renzo Piano Building Workshop last year to design the project, include demolishing the amphitheater and incorporating its function into a main venue, replacing a planned parking garage with underground parking and installing a new type of canopy over a central piazza.
Issues raised by staff included whether the Boca Raton Museum of Art would be adversely affected if the main venue faces west, as now proposed, whether ground conditions allow for the garage to be built underground, and if TCAI should be allowed to build a canopy over an outdoor piazza that provides shade but does not protect from the rain.
Council members had similar concerns and questioned whether they should vote before knowing whether TCAI is meeting its fundraising goals. That report is due this month.
Marc Wigder, who was not elected to office when the council approved the 2022 deal, disagreed with the staff recommendation and proposed hiring a consultant.
City Manager George Brown pushed back, saying city staff had recommended hiring a consultant when the project was first proposed, but the council rejected that.
Deputy Mayor Yvette Drucker also objected, saying the council had nixed the idea because of the high cost.
“I do not want to hold up the process to hire a consultant,” she said. “Staff is comfortable with what has been presented.”
Mayor Scott Singer and Council members Andy Thomson and Fran Nachlas were willing to support Wigder’s proposal even though it was doubtful that a consultant could be hired and provide an analysis in a month.
Brown said that was “unlikely.” Thomson agreed but said a consultant could provide the city with future guidance.
Although the decision stands the chance of imperiling the project, it appeared that both the city and TCAI officials had anticipated some turmoil before the meeting.
Staff presented its report nearly one month before the Oct. 21 deadline, leaving some time for concerns to be addressed. The early report gives both sides time to resolve any issues, TCAI Chair and CEO Andrea Virgin said after the meeting, adding she expected no problems doing so.
“I hear your concerns,” the center’s attorney, Ele Zachariades, told the council. “We are not necessarily opposed to postponement for one month.”
The Renzo Piano design retains the original concepts, which include building flexible performance spaces with no fixed walls so that the various parts of the facility can be used for any imaginable function. Indoor events can be projected onto outside walls so that patrons need not always buy tickets to see a performance.
TCAI officials say maximum audience sizes in the various venues remain the same.
Nonetheless, there are notable changes.
Chief among them is that the amphitheater will be demolished and the types of events now held there can be accommodated in a new main venue, they say.
Instead of facing south as the original plans showed, the main venue now will face west toward the art museum. Fronting it will be a large piazza.
For amphitheater-type events, the theater walls can be opened up so that patrons can use the covered theater space as well as the piazza.
Originally, TCAI officials said they would build a retractable covering over the piazza that would shield the sun and protect from the rain. But the new type of covering now proposed, called tendidos, would not provide rain protection.
Virgin says the change was made because a hard cover canopy is expensive and would not be needed in most cases because if it rains, the theater area is available.
Eliminating a building saves land area and is a more efficient use of space because the amphitheater and main venue rarely would be used at the same time, she said.
The team has opted for underground parking instead of a parking garage to free up space and to improve the project’s appearance.
It also has calculated that the original size of some of the buildings was too large and made trims that reduce the project’s footprint by 33% without reducing audience capacity, Virgin said.
The changes allow the team space to create a linear park along the perimeter of the buildings and to plant 150 trees.
The formerly proposed jewel box theater is now known as the flex cube with seating for 200, and an education and innovation building includes flexible working, startup incubator, co-working and educational spaces.
The Belvedere, a small building that can have as many as 100 seats, will jut up into the sky and offer 360-degree views of the city. A restaurant and lounge are part of the project.
The roofs would have hybrid photovoltaic solar collectors to produce all the electricity and hot water the complex needs.
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