City hires OPN Architects' team to design $67-million Event Center

CEDAR RAPIDS – The City Council last night hired an architectural team headed up by OPN Architects Inc. of Cedar Rapids to design the city's new $67-million Event Center project.

John Frew, the Event Center project manager, told the City Council that some in Cedar Rapids might suggest that OPN is getting too much of the public-sector work as the city builds new buildings or repairs existing ones in the wake of the June 2008 flood. Frew, though, dismissed such a thought.

He said a selection committee comprised of city staff, representatives from his firm, Frew Nations Group, City Council members, members of the Five Seasons Facilities Commission and Scott Schoenike, who manages the city's entertainment venues, picked the OPN team after careful scrutiny of three finalist teams.

The two other finalists, like the OPN team, were a mix of local and national firms.

OPN's team includes te firms Ellerbe Becket and tvdesign.

The city contract calls for the city to pay the OPN no more than $3.78 million for design and engineering services.

Frew said the OPN team will have schematic drawings of the Event Center in 60 days.

"OPN wanted it," Frew said of the local firm. He noted that Dan Thies, president/CEO of OPN, will devote 60 percent of his own work time to the Event Center project.

Frew told the council that the plan remains to complete the Event Center project – which includes upgrading the U.S. Cellular Center arena and building a new convention center on Third Street NE next to it - in the last quarter of 2012.

He noted again that the arena will need to close for a period of time, and he said scheduling certain events around the construction timeline could be difficult.