The City of Springfield is working with an architect and design firm out of Kansas City to envision what a new convention and event center might look like.
Populous specializes in sports and entertainment venue design and has projects across the U.S. and around the globe.
Tim Rosenbury, director of Quality of Place Initiatives for the City of Springfield, said nine firms submitted their qualifications to be considered for the initial pre-design, exploratory phase, and those were shortlisted to four. But Rosenbury said, after interviewing those four teams, “clearly, Populous and their team members of consultants and leaders within their firm just really, met the mark for us.”
He described the initial phase as “a process of discovery, trying to take what we know about the project so far and really dig a little deeper into what might make it real.”
He said, even though the Hunden Report that was released last summer specifies a certain type of facility, Populous will ensure that, if a facility is built in Springfield, it will have an impact for decades.
“If we’re given the chance to do it,” he said, “we’ve got to build a facility that looks into the future, and so we’re going to be challenging the information in the report.”
Rosenbury said they plan to bring in different groups to help them do that, including those who book facilities so they can talk to the architects about what their needs are.
“We need to make sure that we go in with really clear thinking about what a convention center in Springfield should be,” said Rosenbury.
Speaking at a media preview Friday morning, Colleen Cassiday, associate principal at Populous and design manager for the Springfield project said she’s excited to be working on this project and described herself and her team as the “most normal day to day people you will ever meet” even though they advertise themselves as a global company. She said it’s her job to be the guardian of the city’s vision.
Adam Paulitsch, principal for global convention center and design practice at Populous, said they plan to involve the community in every step of the process.
He said one of the most important things when designing a convention center is looking at what the human experience can be. But he said it’s also important to help the public understand what economic benefits those types of facilities can bring to a community.
The Hunden Report, he said, is just the first set of information they look at “from a design economic cost standpoint,” according to Paulitsch. “And just to make sure that we’re checking all the boxes.”
He said convention centers have a negative connotation and that the average citizen wonders why their city needs one, and “’why would we ever want to go there?’ “
He called the initial phase an exercise “to explore what a modern convention center is for a community.” That includes the economic impact but also how it can uplift a community, according to Paulitsch. And he said they need the community to feel like they have access to the facility.
Cassiday pointed to an expo center she and Paulitsch worked on in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a city similar in size to Springfield. She said someone jokingly threw out the idea of having an NFL draft pick for the Packers there.
“We were like, ‘well, why can’t you?’ So they programmed that into the project, she said, and two years ago, that expo center hosted an NFL draft.
Paulitsch and a colleague recently wrote the book, “Rethinking the Way we Gather” after taking about a year to do research on the evolution of education and storytelling. He said they traced back the genesis of conventions to “sitting around the fire, communicating, telling story, transfer of knowledge.”
He said that book has “fundamentally changed how we interact with this industry.” It’s taken them away from numbers on a spreadsheet to thinking about the human experience “and what is going to make someone got out of there, get off their couch, register a conference and go to Springfield, Missouri.”
He talked about how they innovate and rethink the way people gather and what they’re seeing as trends. Those include things like healthy, natural light, spaces for families and spaces for people with mental health challenges.
Paulitsch said, even though they’ve worked in big communities like Las Angeles and Orange County, Florida, they really like doing projects in smaller cities.
“When we’re working in L.A., like, no offense to L.A.,” he said, “95% of the people in Las Angeles have no idea the convention center even exists. Everyone in Springfield will know that the convention center exists.” He said there’s even more pressure in those situations to do what’s right for the community.
The cost of the initial phase is $300,000 to $400,000, according to City of Springfield Spokesperson Cora Scott. She said that amount will be credited to the overall fee if the project moves forward to the next phase.
Populous and the city plan to hold a series of meetings leading up to the April Election when voters will once again decide a hotel/motel tax increase to pay for a new center.
“This kind of six-week period that we’re about to embark on,” said Paulitsch, “this is the most important part of the project. And so it’s not something that we take lightly.”
The team plans to use a deck of idea cards during sessions to help citizens envision what a new convention and event center might be used for, “really pushing outside the box of certain industries or ideas or opportunities that you may not have yet.”
She said if those are discussed early in the process, they could be a possibility for the city in the future.
A meeting on Wednesday, January 28, will be more presentation than interactive, according to Cassiday. But others will include more opportunities for the public to ask questions and provide feedback.
Next Wednesday’s workshop will be held at the Discovery Center of Springfield from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Springfield voters will go back to the polls in April to decide a hotel/motel tax increase after the issue failed in November.
