BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – The plan for the dilapidated structure of Burlington’s Memorial Auditorium is moving forward.
The city will host a community forum and open house on Wednesday to engage the public about what they want to see in the nearly 100-year-old structure.
Earlier this year, the city entered a pre-development agreement with local developers Eric Farrell and Joe Larkin to explore a public-private partnership for the block.
The city stresses that though they want to save as much of the building as they can, there’s no guarantee they can restore much of it given significant issues with the building.
“Memorial Auditorium was built as a tribute to the veterans from World War I, and it’s approaching 100 years old right now, so we’re dealing with, I think, a lot of sentiment and nostalgia around what was here before, but also looking ahead at what the city needs now and what we have the capacity to undertake,” said Brian Pine of Burlington’s Community & Economic Development Office.
The community meeting will include what people want to see from the overall project, but specifically what public spaces they’d like included. The majority of the project will be private and there is a strong emphasis on housing.
In the next several months, a more concrete vision of the future of Memorial Auditorium will be released.
The open house is Wednesday, 5 p.m.-7:30 p.m. at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington. Click here for details on the meeting and more on Memorial Auditorium.