VIDALIA &045;&045; The north side of the Vidalia riverfront is nearing completion with plans for the Vidalia Gateway and Welcome Center drawn and on display.

The architects are hopeful construction will begin by late summer 2004. Coco and Co. architectural firm designed the building, bringing a model for the Riverfront Committee to view Thursday night. The display is in the Vidalia town hall meeting room for public viewing.

Architect Wayne Coco described the entire center to the audience. The center will include a State of Louisiana welcome center, Vidalia Chamber of Commerce, interpretive exhibit/display area with circular Bowie Room, multi-purpose meeting/community space, Mississippi River tower, atrium and restrooms. The entire facility is about 26,000 square feet. All are separate entities within the building and can operate independent of one another.

Coco said bidding on the $3.2 million-to-$3.8 million project should begin in June or July, with construction beginning by late summer. The construction should be complete within a year, putting a tentative opening date on the Vidalia Gateway and Welcome Center in the summer of 2005.

Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland said the town has federal, state and local funding for the project &045;&045; capital outlay grants, state funding for the visitor’s center and a local contribution of land.

&uot;This is really going to complete the north side (of the Vidalia riverfront),&uot; said Renard Chatman, Riverfront Committee member. Chatman said it is a much-anticipated project, one Vidalians are waiting to see. He, along with many of the committee members, were pleased with the design. &uot;I think it’s beautiful,&uot; he said. &uot;You can’t help but love it.&uot;

The building is entirely one floor, except for the Mississippi River tower, which sits at the end of the atrium; it is three stories and can be accessed by elevator or stairs. The tower and atrium are actually an extension, visually, of Concordia Avenue, which serves as the axis and center for the facility. Access to the building will be from Front Street, which will flank one side the building with the river to the other side. The river side will be almost completely glass so visitors can view the river. The entire center will be lighted, with the front tower illuminated like a beacon, Coco said.

&uot;We envision this building to look almost like a barge going down the river,&uot; Coco said. And the tower will look like a lantern.

The meeting room will be one room that can be converted into two smaller rooms with a folding partition. It will be on the left side of the building upon entering while the Chamber of Commerce and visitors center will be to the right. The room, altogether, will be about 9,000 square feet and can hold between 800 to 1,000 people, Coco said. The meeting room also has an attached catering kitchen.

Many members had questions about the design, things they would like to see tweaked a bit. Some of the elements inside the visitors center may be rearranged from the proposal shown Thursday night because of some of the workers’ concerns.

Parking is one of the scarcest aspects of the facility, with proposed parking on both sides and a few spots along the backside but mostly utilizing spaces that are near and under the Mississippi River bridge.

Copeland said he is going to talk to the doctors at the Riverpark Medical Center to see if the center can utilize the medical center’s existing parking after 6 p.m. when events are held in the meeting rooms.