The Confederation Centre of the Arts is nearing the end of a dramatic renovation. As a neighbour, watching the Centre extend itself out and up over the last two years has been fascinating, and I’ve been endlessly curious about what the new parts will feel like.
Having a couple of curious friends in town for the month—one a retired architect, the other a former Charlottetown Festival milliner—seemed like sufficient conceit to ask for a tour of the renovations, and Steve Bellamy graciously agreed to provide one when I did so.
And so we gathered, Lisa, L., friends and I, on Friday afternoon for a deep dive into the belly of the out-and-up.
It’s an impressive expansion. Parts of it are breathtaking.
The use of mass timber throughout is a stark (and welcome) contrast to the sandstone of the original building: it’s simply beautiful, especially as exposed inside the new rehearsal hall that extends out from the old public library pavillion.
As a neighbour, the reorientation of the Centre, after more than 50 years, to finally have a proper “front door” (onto Victoria Row) will change the nature of the neighbourhood for the better. Here’s an architectural rendering of what it will look like (source):
Here are some photos I took during our tour; none really do justice to the scale of the new spaces, which need to be experienced first-hand to truly be appreciated.
For the curious, here’s the Centre’s page detailing the renovations, and here’s the project blog. For the deeply curious, here is the almost-500-page plan for the renovations.
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