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Architect chosen to design community centre

Bowen Island Municipality took one step closer towards achieving the dream of a community centre for island residents.
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Members of the Municipal Community Centre Working group stand in front of the long-standing sign marking the centre’s proposed location. From left, Coun. Melanie Mason with daughters Emily and Pippa (above), Shauna Jennings, Coun. Gary Ander with grandson Henry (below), Coun. Alison Morse, Kristen Watson, Jacqueline Massey, and municipal Chief Adminstrative Officer Kathy Lalonde.

Bowen Island Municipality took one step closer towards achieving the dream of a community centre for island residents. On February 10, BIM Council passed a unanimous motion to sign a contract with Principle Architecture as Prime Consultant for the project. The Community Centre project envisions the construction of a 14,300 square foot facility providing community, recreational and performing arts spaces plus municipal offices, to be built on Area 3 of Lot 2 of municipal land (east of Bowen Island Community School).

The value of the architectural contract, from design to completion of the building, is approximately $535,000, financed from the municipality’s 2017 capital budget. The first stage of work, expected to be delivered by the end of April, 2017, includes the development of a schematic design that will be used to validate costs, currently estimated at around $10 M for the entire project.

The selected lead design firm, a partnership of Principle Architecture and local resident Drew Rose of Still Point Architecture, responded to the Municipality’s RFP, as did 23 others. Its submission, along with a subsequent interview, highly impressed the Community Centre Project Steering Committee, which was tasked with the job of evaluating proponents.

“Principle’s presentation was outstanding in terms of its scope and thoroughness,” said Councillor Gary Ander, Chair of the Community Centre Steering Committee. “The firm demonstrated a deep understanding of the project and awareness of the demand for an innovative design to accommodate the diverse multi-use functions of Bowen’s future civic facility. They also understand that we are a small, some would say unique community and that they’ll be challenged to come up with creative approaches that fit our needs while ensuring budget constraints are respected. We also liked the fact that key members of the team have a personal knowledge and connection to Bowen.”

Principle and Still Point and several members of their engineering disciplines have extensive background and expertise leading the design of warm and welcoming community-based budget-driven projects. Drew and his family have lived on Bowen Island for several years and are active members of the community. Drew has chaired the Bowen Island Municipal Advisory Planning Commission for the past four years.

BIM is looking forward to developing a facility that will act as a gathering place for people of all ages and interests in our community, fostering and inspiring connections, caring, economy and creativity.