THIS WILL LOOK AMAZING!
TABLE ROCK REVAMP
The Niagara Parks Commission has broken ground on a $32-million facelift to Table Rock House, a project chairman Jim Williams said will bring the 19th-century edifice into the 21st century.Built in 1856, Table Rock has become one of the most popular landmarks in the city. It has been upgraded a number of times since the Niagara Parks Commission took ownership in 1886, but said Williams, "(it) is no longer the stately facility it once was and deserves to be." He said the improvements will not only make Table Rock fully accessible to visitors, it will become a year-round destination with covered walkways, panoramic views and more to entice people into the building to meet, eat and shop. "What we anticipate is creating a new meeting place in the park," Williams said of the plans, revealed at a press conference at Table Rock Thursday morning. He said the improvements aren't just a matter of bringing an old building up to modern access and efficiency standards. While those were considerations when looking at how to deal with the aging facility, Williams said the NPC has to look at ways to bring visitors the type of experiences modern travellers look for. "We're catering to the expectations tourists have today," Williams said of the work, which includes renovating the inside of the stone building as well as landscaping the property immediately across the road. "They don't just want to look at something. They want it to be interactive. People want to experience nature. They want to enjoy it without destroying it." Visitors to the facility will have a better chance to interact with nature by the start of the 2008 tourist season. That's when renovations to the first phase of the development will be complete, Williams said - the first improvements to the building since the north and south sections were merged in 1992. Among the improvements to be completed by St. Catharines-based Charter Building Company is a covered bridge linking the parking lot on the opposite side of the road to the second floor of Table Rock, which Williams described as "probably the most under utilized piece of real estate in Niagara Falls." About 100 parking spots on the building's west side will be moved to the east end of the existing lot to make room for manicured parkland with interlocking brick walkways, creating a gateway to Table Rock for the six million tourists who visit there each year. The land where the parking lot is located will also be raised to accommodate the bridge linking both sides of the road, and a clock tower will rise above the bridge into the sky. Currently, the main floor of Table Rock houses gift shops and restaurants, as well as ticket booths to Niagara Parks attractions and public washrooms. While that floor sees millions of people each year, fewer travellers make their way to the second storey of the building, where the Table Rock Restaurant is located. Williams said a number of shops have come and gone on the upper level over the years, due in large part to the lack of traffic. He said the new upper level, with a grand hall, revamped and renamed restaurant and retail stores will draw about 1.5 million more tourists to the top floor each year. An additional 6,000 square feet is also being added to the upper level by enclosing an unused terrace area to create additional retail space and an interpretive centre. Williams declined to elaborate on the interpretive centre, saying it will be something that can only be experienced in Niagara. That centre, he said, will be rolled out at this time next year, just in time for the grand opening of the new Table Rock complex. A glassed-in observation area offering visitors a climate-controlled panoramic view of the Horseshoe Falls will extend 15 feet from the outer edges of the building, and elevators and escalators will make it easy for people with mobility issues to move between the first and second floors. Williams said crews will try to minimize the impact on travellers this season by doing as much work as possible during the fall and winter. able Rock Restaurant will close for the season in September, he said, and reopen in May. Edgewater's Tap and Grill, which traditionally closes for the winter, will remain open instead, so visitors will be able to eat while they're in the Niagara Parks system. Once the work to Table Rock is completed, the second phase of development - making the Incline Railway a fully accessible, four-season attraction - will get underway. Long-range plans include reconfiguring the road past the Falls as the NPC acquires buildings from Ontario Power Generation. When the buildings are handed over to the NPC, likely sometime in the next year, Williams said crews will re-route the road behind the buildings, creating a safer, more eco-friendly experience for pedestrians walking by the Falls. "Long-term, we want to return the park to as natural a state as possible," he said.
Files from the Niagara Falls Review
Files from the Niagara Falls Review
