South Bend's Century Center future sparks controversy

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- The Century Center, a centerpiece of downtown South Bend for nearly 50 years, is now under scrutiny as the city finalizes its draft Downtown 2045 plan.

South Bend's Director of Planning, Tim Corcoran, said the building isn't operating as the city hoped.

"Conventions that we used to get in the 80s and 90s are typically going other places because of the size and configuration of the Century Center," he said. "Places like Grand Rapids, Fort Wayne, and obviously Chicago, tend to pick up the events that might have come to South Bend in the past. So the design of the building doesn't really lend itself to modern conventions."

One portion of the building may get demolished to allow for an expanded riverfront park, but this would also force out the South Bend Museum of Art.

Executive director Lisa Shaffer said it was a complete surprise to her when she learned of this idea just last week.

"It was something that we weren't informed about as they were announcing some of these ideas that they had," said Shaffer. "They didn't present an option about where the museum would move. And they forgot to even engage with us about the art museum itself."

The museum takes up 36-thousand square feet of the Century Center. It gets about 16,000 visitors a year and close to one thousand enrollments in arts classes offered in the space.

"So we are activating the downtown," Shaffer said.

Shaffer said after informing the board of these potential plans, they passed a resolution, "to affirm that they believe that we should be a centerpiece of downtown, and they at this point are firm in maintaining the building that we have because of its cultural significance and the fact that it was built for us almost 50 years ago now."

There's tension over the now-uncertain future of the art museum, but Corcoran said the plan is to keep it and its arts education downtown.

"This is really that 30,000-foot view," he said. "It's that direction. It's to kind of provide that vision and guidance, but every project here will go through a lot more design, a lot more analysis."

Thursday was the final open house regarding the South Bend 2045 plan.

The next steps of the 2045 plan process come at a time when the city has a record one billion dollars of investment— happening right now!

It’s not a binding document, but rather a living document that should guide all developments and moves over the next two decades. Over the past year, the city has held listening sessions, design week, and more events to get input on the plan.

Just like every idea in the draft 2045 plan, nothing is set in stone, but once finalized, the plan becomes a guiding document for city decisions over the next 20 years.

Residents still have until the end of March to give their opinion on any aspect of the 2045 plan by emailing [email protected].

The draft downtown 2045 plan can be found at together.southbendin.gov