Carbondale Main Street, the City of Carbondale and the Southern Illinois University School of Architecture are asking the community for design ideas for the new event venue on Washington Street.
Meghan Cole, the executive director for Carbondale Main Street says the first meeting, which was on Tuesday, was productive.
"We had over 40 people attend, and SIU architecture students as well as faculty were on hand to work together with community members to get their ideas out on paper, on what some things could look like and what they want to see in that kind of a space. Carbondale Main Street currently partners with the city on quite a few projects; this is one that's pretty exciting because I think that downtown really does need a permanent stage with permanent bathrooms, and that kind of thing, for the public to be able to rent out, for the public to be able to enjoy events at."
The area on Washington Street is between the one ways of Route 13, where Shadowfest occurred. Cole says there will be many more meetings, and there is no set date for construction to begin, but smaller details could start as early as this summer.
