With a possible completion date of fall 2014, Events Center committees are looking to get to work.
For more than a month, Sioux Falls officials asked for your help designing a new Events Center and now they're going to get that input.
There are two committees: the Facility Tenant Committee and the Design Elements Committee.
Members of the Facility Tenant Committee will focus on building operations. It is still being formed.
Meanwhile, the Design Elements Committee is ready to go. 12 community members were just chosen to give their input on how the Events Center should look.
These community members chosen are interior designers, some work for furniture stores and another for an art museum. They'll meet and give ideas how they want the Events Center to look inside. We are talking everything from flooring to wall colors to fabrics to furniture pieces.
We met one committee member who is beyond excited.
"These are all the finishes we use," Ajay Kittur said.
Ajay Kittur knows his stuff when it comes to designing a room after all he has been doing it for 22 years. He has designed in India and now in the United States.
"In the last three years, it's more the residential projects I'm working on," Kittur said.
And now he can add Sioux Falls Events Center design to his list of projects.
He was one of 12 Design Committee members from the Sioux Empire chosen. But it wasn't an easy decision for the city. A lot of people wanted to help.
"The last time I stopped at the mayor's office there was like four pages full of the names of people so I feel really honored and excited to be on the committee," Kittur said.
To get more information about the committee, we sat down with the city's project manager for the Events Center Kendra Siemonsma.
She says members are all volunteers and will be meeting on a regular basis.
"Our design phase, the majority is this year and so there are a lot of decisions that need to be made over the next six to nine months," Siemonsma said.
And that's what this team of 12 is now here for.
They'll review plans the hired design consultants present and members like Ajay Kittur will give their two cents.
"We will really be using input from the committees as a baseline for a lot of our decisions," Siemonsma said.
And those decisions could stick.
"I'll have the bragging rights of that was my suggestion. I'm looking forward to it," Kittur said.
The committee having the final say is the Steering Committee which will work with the hired architectural firm.
If you remember the Steering Committee is the mayor, director of finance and public works and the project manager.
Construction on the Events Center is expected to start August 2012.
