PORT TOWNSEND — A meeting Tuesday will hear from members of the public about a proposed Makers Square, an area at Fort Worden that would be dedicated to arts, cultural and educational programming.
Tuesday’s public meeting, hosted by the Fort Worden Lifelong Learning Center Public Development Authority, will be at 7 p.m. at Fort Worden Commons.
During the meeting, staff with the public development authority and a team of design consultants will lead attendees through the visioning process for the proposal, according to PDA spokeswoman Megan Claflin.
The meeting is meant to answer questions from the audience and record public feedback, which Claflin characterized as “the next step in a visioning process that has been under development for more than 10 years.”
Claflin estimates the project could cost about $7.5 million, with $4 million in grant funding already secured.
“Part of the purpose of the meeting is to look at different designs to see what the public wants and then determine the final cost,” Claflin said.
Said Mark Johnson, the project’s lead architect: “We want to build a transparent relationship and want to let the public weigh in.”
The public development authority took over the management of the campus portion of Fort Worden State Park in May 2014 — with Washington State Parks overseeing the remainder of the park.
The space eyed for renovation into Makers Square is located on the western end of the campus. It would house workshop, classroom and studio spaces.
At least nine buildings, which are now under-utilized, would be turned into a cluster dedicated to visual, performance, industrial and culinary arts programs, according to Dave Robison, executive director of the public development authority.
Construction couldn’t begin right away, Johnson said, because the Washington State Parks system still holds leases on buildings scheduled for renovation.
If all goes according to plan, construction on Building 305 would begin next summer with the first phase of operation beginning in May 2018, Johnson said.
Completion of construction would take another five years, he said.
Three sides of Building 305 would remain as they are now, aside from painting and freshening. The west side access would be reconfigured to take advantage of multiple spaces, Johnson said.
It would include an elevator, he said, with access to different parts of the 18,620-square-foot structure that would be devoted to classrooms, galleries, studios and performance spaces supporting simultaneous programming.
The only two buildings that would maintain their current functions are the Madrona MindBody Institute at its northeast corner and the Port Townsend School of the Arts in its center.
The area, which is now geared toward vehicular traffic would become pedestrian oriented although it could still be used for parking at large events put on by Centrum, an arts organization based at Fort Worden, Johnson said.
“A collaborative effort, involving dozens of local and regional community members and professionals, has generated a redevelopment strategy for Building 305 that increases the Lifelong Learning Center’s capacity to provide new, innovative programming to the public and established Fort Worden as a premiere destination for experiential education in the Pacific Northwest,” Robison said.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
