Mike Wolanin | The Republic An exterior view of The Commons through a C-shaped bike rack in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022.
The Commons board is considering commissioning a study examining potential changes to the building.
Commons and city officials said it may undergo a building utilization study to be paid for by Heritage Fund – the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County.
When the new Commons was built in 2008, it was done so with the idea that a convention center would be attached to the building, and its functional design reflected that, board members said.
The Xenia Miller conference room upstairs where the Commons board meets was supposed to be the connection to the convention center, Associate Director of Park Operations Casey Ritz pointed out.
When the board last met in April, as they discussed changes to the former Bucceto’s space that will become an Upland Brewery pizza establishment named “Black Sheep Craft Pizza,” members talked about challenges regulating the heating and cooling of the space that result because only one HVAC system powers the entire Commons. The study is an outgrowth of that discussion.
“One of the things we have found is, we need to reevaluate the way this place was laid out and have a building utilization study done,” Pam Harrell, director of business services, Columbus Parks & Recreation, said during the meeting. “The HVAC system in this building is one system. And so all the spaces utilize that same system, which can cause problems at times, especially when you’re running the upstairs for events or you have restaurants that have a high impact due to ovens.”
Commons officials will meet with maintenance staff next week to begin compiling a list for a future architect and would begin a stakeholder engagement process once an architect is hired, according to Harrell.
“We’re going to try to think through all the concepts and all the processes so that when we go to reach out to an architect that we’re going to have do the building utilization study, we can show them what we need in the scope of work,” Harrell said. “We feel like this would be a good time to reevaluate the way the whole building is. So we may not be able to do it all at once, it’d be a phased-in approach if we do anything from the study, because we’ll have to have the money to do it and it really depends on what the architect comes back with.”
“… If we have a great, big project that is going to cost a whole lot of money, we’ve got one lined up for READI if it comes around in the next go round,” Commons board member and Heritage Fund President and CEO Tracy Souza said later in the meeting.
CSO was the architect for the 2008 iteration of the building, so Harrell said they would likely plan to reach out to them first, “but we may reach out to others.”
When asked about a potential timeline, Harrell said they still need to gauge interest on an architect’s behalf.
“We’ve got to reach out to the architect to see if they’re even interested in the project and that kind of thing first,” Harrell said. “It really depends on what their workflow is. Depending on when they can get to us, we’re going to have to get on their schedule, because I know like other mechanical engineers, sometimes it can take weeks to get into them. So we really have to wait until we pick that architect and see what their timeline looks like.”
The contract with the architect will be with Heritage Fund and the parks department would be the managing partner of the study, according to Souza.
Harrell said she and Souza had a meeting with Mayor Mary Ferdon and Executive Director of Administration Eric Frey to talk about the potential for the study, which comes as Columbus Downtown 2030 is underway — a project of the redevelopment commission that will serve as a framework to guide the future of downtown Columbus.
Director of Redevelopment Heather Pope said the city is looking for a narrower plan than 2018’s Envision Columbus plan to account for a changed climate downtown post-COVID. The hope is to have the Columbus Downtown 2030 plan completed within one year, city officials have said.
“The mayor talked about having this being a part of that study and making sure that — we’re not trying to repeat what they’re doing, and what they’re doing could help us as well,” Souza said. “So there may not be completely independent, common stakeholder meetings, they could be combined.”
Souza also observed the amount of input that has been sought from the public locally in a variety of different areas and emphasized the desire to deliver on a stakeholder engagement process.
Heritage Fund received 823 responses during its survey to get a pulse about what the community thought about a potential performing arts center.
“Fair question is, what’s happening with all that information? One of the things that were said was that you’ve got a performing arts space right here, but it doesn’t feel like a performing arts space, necessarily,” Souza said. “’I want to go to the theater, but I don’t want to go upstairs to the Commons.’ Are there things that we could do in a building utilization study that would make it feel more like you’re going to the theater?”
During their meeting, Souza said, another thing Ferdon mentioned was seeing if caterers had suggestions about the space, for example.
“(Commons Manager Shanda Sass) said that they actually really liked the space, and so that was kind of nice to hear. But we haven’t gone and asked other stakeholders about that,” Souza said. “I think it’s important that we get a broad range of perspectives, both from people who use this space and then from other folks in the community.”
