SPOKANE, Wash. – It is a question that has loomed over the U.S. Pavilion in Riverfront Park for some time now: To cover or not to cover.
The Spokane Park Board made its decision and the Pavilion will remain uncovered. It will feature some shaded covering underneath.
Demolition for the old Ice Palace, the IMAX Theatre and the old Spokane Story building is set for December. None of these buildings were a part of the original pavilion during Expo 74'.
"So we're just really taking it back to it's original building," said Director of Parks and Recreation Leroy Eadie.
The only other change is the pavilion will not be completely covered. Instead, the latest concept designs include shade covers.
"We wanted to be able to have a shade structure that you could take down fairly easy and put back up depending on the event and provide us that shade with a little bit of rain protection and shade in the summer," said Eadie.
The design also includes illuminating the pavilion at night with LED light strips on the cables. The strips will be placed in a spiral pattern, which can create an appearance of motion or color progression. Parks leaders said the project is still on budget.
"We're on target to finish our five promised projects to the citizens. We're going to finish all of them by 2019. And right now, our schedule looks really good," Eadie explained.