The plans for Heber City’s future bandshell planned for Main Street Park were solidified after the Heber City Council discussed, contemplated, revised and drew design ideas on a whiteboard.
The structure, Heber City Planner Matt Brower explained earlier this month, will straddle the park at 200 South.
“Our hope is to have this bid the early part of January so that construction could commence probably sometime in the March, April timeline,” Brower said. “Of course, if Mother Nature will work with us.”
Sid Ostegaard, a subconsultant with Landmark Design and partner at Elliot Workgroup, explained the decisions that had been made on the proposed final design.
He said the building’s materials are meant to promote a rustic character. Next to the stage, there will be a green room for performers to prepare, complete with two restrooms to comply with code. On the opposite side of the stage will be a storage room. Exposed wooden trusses will line steel beams on the interior ceiling.
“Of course, we don’t have enough storage and we won’t have enough storage,” Ostegaard said. “But this is storage for the bandshell.”
Mayor Heidi Franco was worried the bandshell design looked modern.
“I thought we were going to have a historical downtown,” she said. “You’ve got elements of that, obviously.”
Ostegaard said that Brower had asked the design team to determine if the building could feasibly be made of wood.
“It’s almost impossible,” he said. “The cost of it would be pretty large, so that’s why we went to more of a steel-slash-wood look.”
The steel, he added, would be dark as to complement the wooden details of the structure. Because of the metal use, the inside of the bandshell can also be unencumbered by a supporting mast.
“We want that view back out towards the park,” Ostegaard said.
To select the color of bandshell’s roof and the stone for the small structures next to the stage, he said designers looked to match the nearby Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum.
Some councilors weren’t thrilled over the light reddish tint of the stone, and Ostegaard assured them they would be able to consider other options.
Councilor Yvonne Barney asked why the design is open in both directions, leaving performers susceptible to wind.
“We are working on some partition,” Ostegaard said. “When there’s a performer, we’re going to have something that is temporary that comes down and divides it.”
Franco and several councilors stated concerns about the proposed roof, which extended out and up from the center in both directions and met at a cupola.
Councilor Scott Phillips liked the decorative cupola.
Councilor Mike Johnston — being the civil engineer he is — did not.
“It’s fake. It’s not real,” he said. “It looks like an afterthought. … It’s kind of Disneyland to me.”
“It’s like it’s too heavy for the rest of the edging,” Franco said.
Councilor Yvonne Barney also thought the feature looked out of place.
The discussion was taken to a whiteboard seated near the door of the meeting room, where the design was crudely yet discernibly redrawn with the roof being raised in only one direction and with what appeared as a slightly smaller cupola feature.
“I really like what you’ve drawn here,” Barney said.
“We could go down that avenue if that’s the direction we get,” Ostegaard responded.
The council ultimately approved for the process to move forward with the revised roofline and asked Osteegard to return with their final plans.