Council Narrowly Approves Canopy Project

Posted by Downtown Reno Development Feed on May 9, 2007 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

The City Council approved the same design that was presented to the Citizens Advisory Committee meeting I went to last week. It’s far better than the previous scaled back designs. Jessica Sverazza and Dwight Dortch were fumed at the architects for increased design costs, and didn’t understand how a canopy with a budget of $4,000,000 could have over $1,000,000 in architect fees alone. In the end I am glad the Canopy Subcommittee was formed and the vote initially delayed,or else we would have a much uglier canopy design than the one approved. Pic below. The final canopy isn’t circular or Stridex-pad textured, it’s actually a nice butterfly shape. From what I ascertained from the meeting, construction will start sometime in October/November once the event season downtown dies down a bit. On a side note, the translucent poly carbonate material that will compose the canopy is some of the coolest material I have seen: it’s transparent enough for colored backlighting, filters out UV rays, can withstand arctic temperatures up to 500 degrees, never fades or yellows, and is certified for Hurricane force winds.