Smith’s job as the construction manager is to oversee the whole project, which means managing all the trades, sub–trades and liase with Len Brown, the architect, amongst a list of other duties.

Since construction started this fall, there has been up to 10 workers on site everyday. Olson Construction has done similar heritage projects in the Lake Louise area.

So what are these quirks he speaks of? “Some of the framing and concrete work is a little unconventional,” said Smith, explaining that the work was all done by volunteers when the building was originally built. “We’re finding all kinds of surprises, like walls behind walls and some very odd joinery work on some of the timber frames.”

The crew is working on gutting the entire building right now and ensuring that all of the hazardous materials are safely removed. Back in the 40s and 50s, some building materials contained traces of asbestos and were OK as long as particles did not become airborne. Gray Hawk Industries spent almost 6 weeks in the building carefully removing all traces of this hazardous materials.

While that was going on inside, crews worked outside to dig the foundations and pour concrete for the Front of House Annex and the Backstage Annex. Once the building inside was given the all-clear, crews moved inside and began the rest of the de-construction.

Soon in the new year, framing construction will start on the annexes. This will be followed by interior framing work and the trade companies installing new systems. The final step to the rebirth of the Civic Centre will be the interior finishing and completing the exterior work like the siding and roof.

Smith thinks the Civic Centre is a building full of character, and he and his crew are mindful that it was built by people in the community. Rather than get frustrated by it, he said, we have to realize that these volunteers put just as much effort “back in the day” as we are now.

A look at the hand mixed concrete from original foundation - Nov. 19, 2010

“In this sort of project you can’t take anything for granted,” he said. “But there is no right or wrong way of doing things. We have to think outside of the box and come up with creative solutions.”

Although the Civic Centre only closed its doors this fall and construction isn’t expected to be completed until Thanksgiving 2011, Smith can feel the project’s momentum.

“I can see already how it’s all going to come together. We’re giving this building a new life.”

“I think it’s going to be like a Banff Centre, but on a modest scale,” he said. “I hope the Civic Centre becomes known on the touring circuit as a friendly venue for performers to come to and an enjoyable facility for our community’s use”

Brown has been involved in the project for a long time. He first looked at the building in 2004 with the Rotary Club with the question of how they could take the existing building and “move it forward.” A few years later Brown worked with Bill Usher on expanding the stage and in 2008, after the Town of Golden received funding, he was hired to do the master plan. The project then received a significant amount of funding from Columbia Basin Trust and the provincial Towns for Tomorrow program. It was at that point, Brown said, that he knew this project was going to happen.

“I always think it’s a good thing to look at our community resources and how we can best use these resources,” said Brown when explaining why the Civic Centre is being “rebirthed” and not torn down and built from the ground up. “In this case we had an old, somewhat neglected building that had a lot of emotional attachment.”

Brown explained that when he and a crew examined the centre from a structural point of view they found problems but nothing that was “earth–shattering.”

“At the end of the day, we found that the shell was in good enough shape to move forward with the renovations,” said Brown. “That, and the fact that it has a strong emotional value to the town, made it clear very quickly that renovating would be the best use of our community resources.”

The price of renovating was calculated to be about half of what it would cost to tear down the building and start from the ground up.

Some of the biggest problems now, as construction starts on the centre, are working with old materials and systems—like lighting, wiring and plumbing— that were designed when the structure was built 60 years ago. Since the building was erected as more of a community hall and at a time when the building code was drastically different, making it safe and able to pass all health codes is more of a challenge than if they were to build from the ground up.

Even the exit strategies, explained Brown, are something we really had to work on because the Civic Centre is a public building. “Designing a public building is very different from a private one,” he said. “It needs to be very simple to use. If someone is coming from out of town and has never been in the building, they need to be able to understand it easily.”

Brown believes the Civic Centre helps tell the story of Golden. That’s why he’s used new technology and building practices to showcase this history. The installation of an indoor sprinkler system, for example, allows the great hall trusses to be exposed because the building code is more relaxed. It’s things like this, Brown explained, that really show the character of the building.

As for the building as a performance space, Brown made sure he thought about the design from the performers point of view. He knows that performers come to some rural areas and are faced with the feeling of “this is as good as it’s going to get” and then have to deal with the shortcomings.

The expansion at the back of the building, for example, will help the performers move around back stage more easily. The centre will even have the technology for the CBC remote truck to plug into the facility and record a show.

“It’s the parts that people won’t see that the artists and audiences will greatly benefit from.”

Glen Ewan thinks the title should really go to the Civic Centre. He and his wife moved to Golden in 1978 and thank the centre for being a haven for meeting new people.

“In the last 62 years the Civic Centre has been home to events like weddings, funerals, plays, political meetings and dances,” he said. “It was even a shooting range at one point. It was just the place where everyone went.”

Glen is the chair of the Civic Centre Redevelopment Select Committee. He joked that he took this responsibility because no one else wanted to, and whether or not that’s true, he now feels honoured to be part of such a dynamic team.

The Select Committee has been meeting every Tuesday morning since February. As a committee of Town Council and staffed by Jon Wilsgard, the group make the majority of decisions on behalf of Council. The Committee also makes periodic recommendations to council, ranging from what type of roof to choose to dealing with the project’s budget.

The Select Committee first gathered to see what it would take for the Civic Centre to undergo major renovations. They looked at how much it would cost, what the design would be and — what Glen thought to be the most important aspect of it all — how the money would be raised.

Tearing down the whole building and starting fresh was an option, but the grant money available for renovating heritage buildings, coupled with the fact that the Civic Centre does have a significant personal value to many people in town, among other reasons, made it clear to the committee that renovating would be the way to go.

In the spring, the Committee put together a spreadsheet of what grants they would apply for them and who would complete the application. Various regional, provincial and federal funders have all contributed significant funding to date to support the vision of rebirthing the Civic Centre as the community’s arts and cultural centre.

A Construction Committee, a sub group of the Select Committee, now meets on a weekly basis while the Select Committee gets together every other week.  “Our job now is to oversee the construction and securing the remainder of the funds needed,” says Glen.

Glen was pleased to share what he thinks to be one the treats of working on the Select Committee. “There was a young woman in the 1950s to see a band from Calgary at the Civic Centre,” he said. “It was a big deal because back then, there wasn’t much of a highway from the city to Golden.”

The woman fell in love with the band’s saxophone player and soon got married. Fifty years later in the summer of 2010, after an appeal from the Select Committee, the couple’s family foundation in Calgary donated $5,000 towards the rebirth of the Civic Centre. And just a couple of weeks ago, Kicking Horse Culture received a $500 cheque in the mail from the Daynard family. Ex-Goldenites now retired in Alberta, they’d heard about the rebirth and wanted to help.

“That’s just the kind of place the Civic Centre is for people,” said Glen.

The hall, Glen explained, was built completely by volunteers after WW2 and completed in 1948. Although there are a many quirks in the building — some discovered long ago like a set of children’s footprints in the concrete and others being uncovered right now as construction workers gut the building — it is constructed out of some irreplaceable materials. The main beams, for example, were salvaged from the Columbia River Lumber Company which closed its doors in 1926.

“This is a heritage building Golden is proud of,” he said. “Everybody has a story about the Civic Centre.”