Chris R.
Senior Member
Regardless of what it looks like (which I will admit is less than was promised), a $280m investment into the arena with a plan to bring like quadruple the visitors to the city is huge for downtown.
Hamilton FirstOntario Centre Renovations | ?m | 4s | OVG | BBB
- Thread starter innsertnamehere
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innsertnamehere
Superstar
I mean I hope you don't make business decisions on renderings.. In the dollar and cents department this deal has worked out surprisingly well for the City by the looks of it. We'll have to see how it goes overall of course.
Chris R.
Senior Member
Sidebar: it's being used for filming and I took these shots of snipers on the roof
BCTed
Active Member
It is such a serious amount of money that I still struggle to believe that this will actually happen. The extensive multi-year Rogers Centre/SkyDome renovations are costing $300 million (if they do not go over budget).
Chris R.
Senior Member
I mean they've signed an agreement with plans to basically start in January. At this point it seems it's pretty serious as that's like 3 or 4 months from major works starting. We'll likely start to see permits coming through.
berklon
New Member
I think the skepticism is based on the money amount. This will get started and will get done - but I wouldn't be surprised if the money allocated for it gets reduced.
Judging from the 300m being spent on the impressive Skydome renovations, 280m should do quite a bit for FOC - which makes me wonder if they'll scale back and settle for "good enough" in some aspects of the reno.
rdaner
Senior Member
Just wanted to say that all of this has alerted me to the fact that a large theatre is part of the deal. And all they would need to do to update it is replace the brown tinted windows and the ugly tiles in the foyer.
Towered
Superstar
Leave it as is - it's gloriously 70's!
Sunnyside
Active Member
Time is certainly showing much of the architecture of the entire Civic Centre is holding up better than expected, dare I say quite well… this interior in particular is certainly a nice bit of brutalism.
Chris R.
Senior Member
I'm no big fan of a lot of brutalism, but the interior of Hamilton Place is stunning. It could use some basic work, like new toilets, sinks, stalls, some either items like new doors, and some new flooring, but damn is it a beautiful venue. I really, really hope they don't rip out the items that are just starting to show some vintage charm. Assuming they don't ruin the venue with the couple million, it will surely receive heritage status in the future. I can imagine the venue being a perfect example of 1970s brutalism and post mid-century modern architecture.
BCTed
Active Member
Re-posting from SSP, as I cannot tell what the overlap is between the viewership of the two sites...
Just imagine what even a modest new videoboard alone would do for this place. The current one is so shabby and out-of-date and small and has such poor resolution --- I doubt that there is one in the OHL or anywhere in junior hockey that is as bad as this one. The new board in Brantford is 1000x better and probably cost less than a million bucks. And hopefully the new Hamilton one will be much better than that one.
Just imagine what even a modest new videoboard alone would do for this place. The current one is so shabby and out-of-date and small and has such poor resolution --- I doubt that there is one in the OHL or anywhere in junior hockey that is as bad as this one. The new board in Brantford is 1000x better and probably cost less than a million bucks. And hopefully the new Hamilton one will be much better than that one.
Chronamut
Active Member
it's a far cry from the opulence of the original palace and the capitol theatres that used to be on king st - the concrete brutalism and the wood panelism really dates this..
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berklon
New Member
Normally, the brutalist approach isn't pretty - but I have to agree that despite that, Hamilton Place still has an unexpectedly warm feel to it.
I think what makes a big difference is the wood that's present. It softens everything.
In fact, I think it would be great to further soften the lobby and other areas by respectfully adding more wood pieces throughout. Any large slabs of concrete should have a wood piece set in front of it. Not blocking it entirely, just have it center the slab to work in conjunction with it. I see a few places in the picture posted above where some added wood pieces would really improve the looks.
I think what makes a big difference is the wood that's present. It softens everything.
In fact, I think it would be great to further soften the lobby and other areas by respectfully adding more wood pieces throughout. Any large slabs of concrete should have a wood piece set in front of it. Not blocking it entirely, just have it center the slab to work in conjunction with it. I see a few places in the picture posted above where some added wood pieces would really improve the looks.
ericmacm
Active Member
Found some sneaky imagery on OVG Canada's website that shows what the final updated renderings might look like once they officially get publicly released. Looks like there is more going on than what has been shown in the most recent renderings, but the exterior structure still remains the same shape. The interior renovations are by far the most important aspect of this project anyway.
Additionally, I learned of another recent OVG project in the US. They recently completed a $200M USD renovation of Baltimore Arena, now known as CFG Bank Arena, where they increased capacity to around 14,000 seats and completely redid the interior. Here are some before/after examples of the arena bowl, which gives a good idea of what we can expect. I've linked the arena website so one can get a better idea of the concourse renovations and new amenities.
Circa 2016:
Circa 2023:
Additionally, I learned of another recent OVG project in the US. They recently completed a $200M USD renovation of Baltimore Arena, now known as CFG Bank Arena, where they increased capacity to around 14,000 seats and completely redid the interior. Here are some before/after examples of the arena bowl, which gives a good idea of what we can expect. I've linked the arena website so one can get a better idea of the concourse renovations and new amenities.
Circa 2016:
Circa 2023:
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BCTed
Active Member
OVG has frequently referred to the CFG Bank Arena project when discussing Hamilton. They spent a ton of money there, but what is a bit concerning to me is that they pretty much kept the old video board and did not even add LED ribbons around the arena. Apparently, this was because that venue is also considered concert-first and OVG was aiming for "sustainability".
Fingers crossed that OVG actually spends the big bucks and that Copps actually becomes state-of-the-art.
Fingers crossed that OVG actually spends the big bucks and that Copps actually becomes state-of-the-art.