Edmonton releases arena design images

The City of Edmonton released new images of a proposed downtown arena on Wednesday.

The images show a design open to daylight with a tall pedway over 104th Avenue that dropsdown to a new public square.

"It's very modern," said Rick Daviss, the city's executive director for the arena district project. "It's curvilinear, it's free flowing. I think that helps soften the hard edges. It is going to be a fairly significant building."

Mayor Stephen Mandel withheld his opinion on the imagesuntil he saw more detailed drawings.

"The proof is in the details," he said. "This is an eclectic abstract picture of something."

The city describes the picturesas part of preliminary design work,a starting point for evaluatingoptions for building amenities and construction feasibility.

The design work and images will continue to evolve as the city gathers input from the public, the architect, the project manager and the Katz Group, the arenaproponent.

One concept that's already changed significantly from previous drawings is the Wintergarden mall which rises over 104th Avenue leading into the arena.

Theoriginal planleft the avenuea dark tunnel, said Daviss.This time around the mall ismore narrow, with higher floor andceilings and drops down quickly to a pedestrian level south of the avenue, he said.

City council will get moreinformationand images on May 16th beforestarting a public consultation process,allowing people to give feedback in-person, online and over the phone.

Following the consultation, an updated design package will return to council, which will make the final decision on the design of the new building.

The $30 million for design work is included in the overall building budget of $450 million.

Construction is still scheduled to start in 2015, Daviss said.