City-released images give fresh look to potential multiplex locations

Thunder Bay residents are getting their first look at what a proposed multiplex might look like in all three shortlisted locations.

City community services manager Greg Alexander, however, cautioned that the design in the three-dimensional architectural drawings are not tied to any final design for the 6,500-seat facility, which council has yet to approve.

Alexander said the drawings, which feature the same facility placed on lands adjacent to the Thunder Bay International Airport, Innova Park and where the Water Street bus terminal presently resides, were a way to give council, city administration and the public a better feel for how the facility might look in each environment.

“We asked an architect to keep the base model we have for the multiplex and to rough out what they might look like at each site they proposed,” Alexander said.

“It’s just so we had some idea in a three-dimensional sense how they would fit on the sites.”
Alexander called it a fair representation.

“We had to see what the site would look like and where the parking would be and how we can beautify it. It’s not exact and we certainly aren’t making any decisions based on those schematics. It’s kind of hard to envision how a multiplex might look on the site if you don’t have three-dimensional diagrams to look at.”

He added all of the sites are large enough to house a multiplex, which from here on in the city intends to label the Thunder Bay Events Centre.

“It’s just a question of where parking goes and what other amenities have to be added. For instance the convention centre could have a bus terminal associated with it if it’s in the downtown,” Alexander said.

The drawings feature overhead and side views of each location and show a single-level seating plan, divided into 13 sections. The convention centre appears to take up about a third of the facility’s floor space.

The building itself features a domed roof with a green space on the Water Street side in the downtown north core layout.

The Innova Park drawing shows a building surrounded by acres of parking, situated overlooking the Harbour Expressway.

The airport location also shows plenty of onsite parking, nestled across the street from ORNGE’s air ambulance base.

More images are available online on the Thunder Bay Event Centre Facebook page.