Convention centers will be more about making a city than making a building.
Connecting Experience
BY MARK REDDINGTON LMN ARCHITECTS
There are three things to consider about the future of convention centers: urbanism, user experience, and sustainability. First, it will be more about making a city than making a building. Cities are increasingly becoming more dense and diverse, more culturally rich and vibrant. In turn, the design of convention centers is increasingly about cre- ating an integrated urban experience—a piece of the city that offers an authentic experience of place and that is con- nected in meaningfulways to the surrounding urban fabric and naturalenvironment. As the integration of facility into urban fabric continues to deepen, we may also see the convention center become more fragmented, broken into dis- crete pieces and distributed into the texture of the city. Design will continue to expand emphasis on the quality of the user experience. Convention centers are increasingly
less limited by specific or traditional assignments of activities within particular rooms; instead, we’re moving toward more flexible and dynamic spaces in which the user experience is created through flexible systems and theatrical means. Finally, we’re seeing increasing emphasis on environmental sustainability—energy conservation, resource manage-
ment, and a wholly integrated relationship with the natural environment, ecological impact, and public life and the com- munity.
MARK REDDINGTON is a design partner with LMN Architects, a Seattle-based firm that has completed more than 60 convention center projects, including the world’s first LEED Platinum center,Vancouver Convention CentreWest. LMN has been named conceptual designer for the Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center.
GREEN CONNECTION: This landscaping sketch for the Vancouver Convention Centre illus- trates the integration of the center’s six-acre liv- ing roof, which is plant- ed withnative grass, witha city waterfront greenway and Stanley Park, at right. Below, the completed center.