A cultural center in Zapopan ridiculed as a “white elephant” for the past three years has finally opened.
The three-story Centro Cultural Constitucion has been built on a 5,000-square meter plot at the corner of Avenida Constituyentes and Venustiano Carranza in Colonia Constitucion (“La Consti”) that for decades housed a municipal market known as “Mercado Bola.”
The space features a 500-seat auditorium, an explanade that can also be used for performances, and 25 classrooms and rehearsal rooms of varying sizes with a capacity to cater to 350 music students, as well as choirs and small orchestral groups. The cultural center will eventually become the home of the Zapopan School of Music, and the headquarters for other artistic groups sponsored by the municipality.
The complex also has a multiple-use salon, four classrooms for plastic arts and three for dance, a library and 100 underground parking spaces.
Classes are planned in music, dance, theater and other artistic pursuits. Inscriptions will start in February 2017.
The architectural design allows up to 800 people to use the facility at any given time, said chief architect Leonardo Diaz Borioli.
The original budget of the cultural center was 72 million pesos. The final cost was 140 million.
GR staff