Banff Centre shelves bold proposals for expansion

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The Banff Centre's new president is shelving ambitious plans for an expansion that would have seen many of the presentation spaces built off the mountain and in the tourist town's centre.

Those proposals – outlined in the Banff Centre's 2013 strategic plan at an estimated cost of hundreds of millions of dollars – are no longer on the table.

"Frankly, I get the big vision and some of the ideas around the future for the Banff Centre that have been talked about in recent years, but I would say my focus is going to be maintaining and improving and kind of stewarding the buildings we already have here on campus," Banff Centre president Janice Price said, pointing out that some of those buildings are more than 60 years old and need attention.

"Both new buildings and buildings down in town [are] not currently in the mix of those plans," she said.

The Banff Centre is an internationally renowned arts incubator – and that is a reputation Price, on the job for about three months now, wants to cultivate and own. The centre also presents artistic programming, operates a conference centre and offers leadership-development programs.

Price, a former chief executive officer of Toronto's Luminato Festival, took over at Banff after the surprise departure of Jeff Melanson, who was about halfway through a five-year term. (Melanson, who left for personal reasons, is now president and CEO of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.)

During his truncated tenure, Melanson masterminded a bold plan for campus renewal.

"The Banff Centre is currently in the process of imagining a new theatre, art gallery, art incubation, music, mountain culture and other facilities," the centre's 2013 strategic plan said.

Phase 2 of the redevelopment, the document said, could include a Mountain Science & Culture Pavilion, a 1,000-seat theatre, a 300-seat black box theatre, a 175-seat club-style space and an art gallery. Phase 1, which predated Melanson's arrival, included an amphitheatre, the Kinnear Centre and other renovations.

The cost to build an arts centre downtown and make longer-term changes to the mountain campus was estimated at $900-million.

Reached by e-mail on Thursday, Melanson declined to comment on the shelving of the plans.

When he announced his exit last year, the board said it would continue to pursue the ambitious vision. In an April, 2014, news release, it said the 2013 strategic plan "is being fully implemented and represents an exciting new direction and new opportunities."

But those plans are being at the very least postponed.

Not only has the leadership at the Banff Centre changed, so has the economic climate in Alberta. Price, recognizing that, has prioritized maintenance and upgrading of current facilities over big plans to build new ones. "Obviously the new economic reality in the province of Alberta, with the price of oil, is a factor," she said.

But so is an inevitably complicated, years-long process building a consensus around priorities, Price added. "So I prefer to focus on what we have here, make sure it's all functioning at the highest possible level and frankly look more at doing a better job of communicating and sharing what we already do here rather than begin on new programs and processes," she said.

This revised scope is reflected in the centre's new comprehensive institutional plan for 2015-18, which was due to go to the province (where the centre gets about a third of its funds) at the end of April.

In the new plan, the priorities include refurbishing existing buildings as well as addressing deficiencies in technological infrastructure. It outlines planned capital expenditures of about $2-million in each of the three fiscal years, compared with the $300-million a year required in supplemental capital funding for campus renewal outlined in the 2013 strategic plan.

Renovations on the Lloyd Hall residence building are to begin later this year. The Eric Harvie Theatre is also a priority. Price is eager to address audience issues: making the seating more comfortable, improving the acoustics, creating more audience-friendly lobby spaces.

KPMB, which was hired last July to create a master plan as part of the campus renewal, was asked to present a revised strategy – a "realistic and an achievable master plan that we can execute over the next five to seven years," Price said.

She was not able to say what the price tag would be for the revised proposal. "It will still be a significant number, but it won't be the imagined scale that had been previously announced," she said.

Price added, "It doesn't mean we don't have aspirations; we always do. It sounds a lot more practical, maybe not as sexy. But I think it is. I'm excited by really stewarding and properly maintaining our current buildings on campus. I'm excited about going out with that as the vision, along with reclaiming that global reputation for the work we do here. I mean, for me, it's about what the actual output is of this place."