(BLOOMINGTON) – The City of Bloomington and Monroe County Government, working jointly on the expansion of the Monroe Convention Center (302 S. College Ave), have asked Convergence Design and Schmidt Associates, the architect/design team for the project, to gather feedback from stakeholders and the greater community about project design.
The next step in the design process is a concept design charrette, convened by Convergence Design and Schmidt Associates. This 3-day charrette, April 16-18, will include open work sessions during which the architect/design team will begin to explore site layout for the convention center expansion. This will be a pencil to paper exercise, with the team utilizing tools such as concept sketching, puzzle piece exercises and 3D massing studies to envision various options for the site.
The public is welcome to drop by the following open work sessions at the Monroe Convention Center to see the concept design process in action and provide feedback:
- Tuesday, April 16 between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. (Day 1 review provided at 5 p.m.)
- Wednesday, April 17 between 8 a.m. and Noon and 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. (Day 2 review provided at 5:30 p.m.)
- Thursday, April 18 between 8 a.m. and Noon
There also will be an open public forum on Wednesday, April 17 from 6:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. for the architect/design team to reveal conceptual site plan options developed to that point, which will have incorporated the community’s input gathered during the first two days of the charrette.
All sessions will be held in the Hansen-Zebendon rooms at the Monroe Convention Center at 302 South College Avenue.
Convergence Design, out of Kansas City, MO, specializes in small- and mid-market convention centers. Schmidt Associates is a full-service architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Indianapolis. In addition to staff from these two firms, Hunden Strategic Partners (Chicago, IL), Cornerstone Planning & Design Solutions (Fishers, IN) and Bledsoe Riggert Cooper James (Bloomington, IN) are involved in the design phase.
