Theatre and barracks, here the time for the requalification.

Theatre and barracks, we are at the final rush. On April 30th two competition announcements will be published. On May 15th the ideas contest starts and on June 30th envelopes will be opened and a committee of 5 experts will judge the offers.

The 5 Experts

“The committee will include 3 experts, chosen by universities; one chosen by the municipality and one from the professional associations” said the mayor of Varese, Attilio Fontana.

Who will be the winner? The president of Lombardy Roberto Maroni, a few days ago, spoke about archistar, but we have to wait a little while to understand who will introduce other ideas.

Maroni claims: the award of contracts will be on Christmas 2015

Today in Varese, has take place the vigilance committee assembly to the schedule agreement, which includes region, municipality, province, university and Asl(  organising systems for the health assistance). ” The last details have been indicated and by the end of the month, on April 30th, the competition announcement will be ready and after a week will be published, said the governor.

Actually, the competition announcements will be two. The first one for the square and barracks and the other for the theatre. The time limit for the presentation of the preliminary  projects of the ideas contest, will be on June 30th and then by July the committee will judge the project which will be introduced by the end of November in order to have its award before Christmas”.

” I remind you that the last December 21th of 2014 the schedule agreement was firmed, so we will celebrate its first birthday with the project’s award: this is the time schedule which has been decided decided today, said the president.

Money

The budget , which is already allocated by the region for the project, is about 20 millions euro; the barracks should be realised together with the square, with public money, whereas for the theatre and the buildings above ( with the demolition of Sant’Ambrogio boarding school) they spoke about a project financing, which looks for budgets on the real estate market. The original competition announcement expected for the first allotment of contract, 3.5 millions euros  from municipality for the barracks, 1 million from the province and 1 million from the region. For the second allotment, which concerned the theatre, were expected 19 millions euro from the region and the rest from private funds. However, on request of Varese province has been decided that, a great part of the 20  millions euros from the region, will be used also for the barracks.

Goals

In any case, it is a public investment which is destined to change the city profile, for decades.

The goal is to transform Repubblica square from an empty space to a vocation, a civic and cultural arena. The library and the cultural centre will have their location at the ex barracks, a new theatre will replace the present one and a convention hall will be created at via Ravasi. In addiction to this, a new Asl office will be built and on the hills will rise some private apartment buildings, but with a public panoramic viewpoint.

And what about Vittorio Sgarbi? Do you remember his idea to build a theatre inside the barracks, with an entry in Palladio’s villa style? Well, there is no more risk.