We often have the pleasure of listening to visiting bands in the Park. The performances are hugely popular and yet our Park does not have a natural perfomance venue for bands (or for that matter for other performers).
So – the Friends of the War Memorial Park have been investigating the possibility of building a permanent BANDSTAND in the park. We have been investigating design options, costs, funding, support from bands and other possible users …..
So far there has been a very positive response from pretty much everyone we have spoken with – the public, the City Council and from all the potential perfomers that we have asked.
We also thought that we should not just be thinking of traditional designs, but should consider the options for something more up to date. To help us get started, we asked Coventry University whether they would be interested in running a competition to provide some concept designs.
The Coventry University students have come up with some really imaginative concepts. 21 teams submitted concept designs. These were shortlisted to six designs by a panel which included representatives from the Friends of the War Memorial Park. The six shorlisted designs were then exhibited online and during three one-week exhibitions and voting sessions.
A brief presentation about the Coventry University concept designs, the other concept designs and the initial selection process is shown on this page.
We are now looking for your views to help us focus on one concept which we will develop and seek funding for.
Based on lots of input so far, we have shortlisted four concepts – two modern and two traditional. Rather than only choosing one design, what we would like is to get an understanding of your preferences. For each of the four designs, we would therefore like an indication of whether it is a concept that you strongly like, like, dislike or strongly dislike.
Whichever concept is chosen, it will need some development to make it useful, practical and suitable for our park. It will also have to be compliant with current rules and regulations. That said, the intent is that what you see is close to what you get.
These are the four concepts on which we would like your thoughts:
Modern design concept (from Coventry University students): Unity (Yin-Yang)
Modern design concept (from Coventry University students): Poppy
Traditional design (montage, superimposing design on War Memorial Park): Wandle Park, Croydon
Traditional design (montage, superimposing design on War Memorial Park): Wellingborough
So please spare us a few minutes of your time to complete
the survey in order to let us have your views (the survey only has four questions).
In case you are interested in the possible locations for the bandstand, we have a diagram showing the primary locations which we think may be suitable for building the bandstand (it is shown below). These and other possible alternative locations will need to be carefully reviewed with the Council, because the locations will need to be accessible, maintainable, close to amenities and, of course, suitable to host performances.
Some of the locations will be more aesthetically suitable for traditional designs, some for modern designs and some would probably accept either.
These are our current thoughts on the locations, but the more important issue at this stage is to select a concept design, so that we can pursue funding.
