On Monday January 10, 2022, the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly made a significant decision to support the development of a new community project, the Capital Civic Center.

The concept, presented in the accompanying drawings, incorporates needed facilities as outlined by Travel Juneau, Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce, Juneau Arts and Humanities Council and The Partnership to better serve our community, our role as the capital city of Alaska and our year round visitors. In short the new facility completes the scope of Centennial Hall as it was originally envisioned in the early 1980’s.

The new facility concept is comprised of a renovated and enlarged Centennial Hall that features an expanded lobby area, second floor meetings rooms, a 299-seat theater with full professional back-of-house support and Community Hall–approximately the same size as the current Juneau Arts & Culture Center–a gallery, staff offices and associated support space.  

I encourage you to review the floor plans presented in the concept to get an idea of the completeness of the scope. The elevations are renderings by the architects that suggest what the building could look like and provide a sense of scale of the structure in relation to its site. As currently conceived the new facility does not significantly impact parking in the area. 

The funding approved by the Assembly will be used to refine the concept to the next stage of design development. This process will take 8 - 10 months with community input/review meetings being held at various points to ensure the design, as it develops, meets community and user needs. This phase of the project represents approximately 30% of the needed architectural and engineering work required for a full set of construction documents.  The purpose of the 30% design development is to provide enough specific information regarding facility scope to establish accurate estimated costs for construction, early in the overall process.  The majority of the funding for the project is being secured from sources other than the city of Juneau. 

When the Partnership began the effort to design and construct a new facility to support the arts and culture in Juneau, we never contemplated the opportunity to join forces with a larger coalition of community organizations and the City and Borough of Juneau. The new facility may be a departure from where we started, but it is a more complete, robust and versatile complex than the Partnership originally conceived and inclusive of all the attributes of that original design. 

Please feel free to contact us with any questions you have regarding the new Capital Civic Center. We will do our best to answer them. We will also be sending out notifications for the community meetings that will be occurring over the next few months. Your input is important in shaping this new facility and defining its role in our community.  

Thank you for your continued trust in our efforts and your support of the project.

Bob Banghart, Partnership Executive Director