Corn Palace looking to foster discussion about future with renovation plans display

Dec. 22—MITCHELL — A new mural and graphic is in place at the Corn Palace's north end, meant to foster discussions and public input over the renderings and design concepts from the 2022 study about the building's future and possible renovation.

The graphics are in place at a good time, with three months of basketball games at the Corn Palace still ahead, including 30 varsity games in three days next week for the Hoop City Classic. For the entire basketball season, not counting the postseason or junior-varsity games, there's about 150 basketball games scheduled through March.

The goal is to get more Corn Palace visitors

engaged with the results of the February 2022 design study, which received community input

and was put together by Schemmer, a design and engineering firm which is headquartered in Omaha and has an office in Sioux Falls, and Convergence Design, of Kansas City.

"We get all of these visitors here and you never know who might look at it and say, 'What's it going to take to get this started," Corn Palace director Doug Greenway said. "Ultimately, the building process will need the mayor and the City Council to sign off but it's up so people can get a vision of what we want to do long term."

Among the goals of the public input process were to increase the building's event space, add seating up to 5,000 capacity, improve the building access for teams and performers, add concessions, restrooms and locker rooms and explore premium seating options.

The renovation options are split into three options:

* Option A: Remodel the Corn Palace but don't change the building footprint, increasing the event floor space to 17,000 square feet with room for two basketball courts. It would seat 2,800 for basketball and 3,100 for concerts and cost was estimated at up to $18 million. The current stage structure in the Corn Palace would remain.

* Option B: Increase the event floor size to 22,000 square feet, with room for three full basketball courts when the seats are retracted. The building would be widened to go to Lawler Street and a new entrance to the building is planned for the northeast corner of the complex. The seating capacity would increase to 4,200 for basketball and 4,500 for concerts. The cost was estimated at up to $38 million.

* Option C: Similar to Option B but additional seating wings would be added on the north and south ends of the basketball court to bring the total seating in the building close to 5,000. The cost was estimated at up to $44 million.

The costs included in the study are based on 2022 figures, meaning the price tag of the building will almost certainly be higher now. The mechanical, electrical and plumbing functions of the building have to be replaced no matter what improvements are made and are estimated to cost about $6 million. The improvements also include changing at least some of the current fixed seating to retractable seating to open up floor space.

Options B and C also call for demolition of the current locker rooms and rebuilding them in the area of the current City Hall. Options B and C also include a second-level concourse and a club level that could allow premium seating options. All three options include a permanent retail space for the Corn Palace gift shop in the current City Hall complex, as well.

In all renovation plans, Mitchell City Hall would need to relocate, either within the current building or in a new building to the north and the Corn Palace would need to continue to stay open and operate during any renovation.

There are no set plans on how any of the upgrades or renovations could be funded. Greenway said he believes there will need to be a major corporate sponsorship or donation to kickstart the project.

"It's also there to generate some interest with our young people that shows this Corn Palace is here to stay," Greenway said of the display. "It is valuable to the city of Mitchell, for the number of people that stop to visit and the number of events we host. ... We could do an awful lot more, especially in the summertime, if we had floor space. We want to get people excited about the next generation of the Corn Palace."

The 2024 murals at the Corn Palace have a special element to them: the subjects of those murals can let the public know how they feel about the corn art creations.

At the front of the Corn Palace, Olympic champion Billy Mills is depicted in his famous 1964 gold-medal moment. Mills, an Oglala Sioux member, wrote last month about how special the mural is to him. (Mills has plans for a Jan. 24 visit to the Corn Palace with a public event to be announced.)

"When I was small, I got a chance to see the Corn Palace near Mitchell," Mills wrote on Facebook in November. "Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think an image of this Oglala would be in a mural at the entrance to the Corn Palace!"

Another prominent mural finished in December was that of game show host Bob Barker. Both the Corn Palace and the Visit Mitchell social media accounts picked up traction earlier in December on what would have been the late Barker's 100th birthday, noting the completion of the mural. Between the two, posts about Barker's mural got about 3,000 reactions and shares each on Facebook, while pictures of the mural have been shared around on other social media platforms, as well.

"It's always fun to see how people react to the murals," Greenway said. "The Bob Barker mural, it's always the most photographed corner when you come down Main Street. It's going to bring back a lot of memories for people. ... It's an attractive mural and we take that into account when we decide who is going where."

There's only so much mural space, and Greenway said he's gotten calls about why various famous South Dakotans weren't selected to go on the building, notably actress Cheryl Ladd and news anchor Tom Brokaw. Greenway said that the Corn Palace Board's discussion about who was put on the murals was a tough one.

The list of living depictions includes Mills, former basketball stars Mike Miller and Becky Hammon and former astronaut and Scotland native Charles Gemar.

Author Laura Ingalls Wilder, former U.S. Marine and World War II hero Joe Foss and Deadwood legend Wild Bill Hickok are also on the murals currently being completed.

"It came down to a mixture of culture and history," Greenway said of the selections. "We spent a lot of time thinking about it."

The list of living individuals depicted on the Corn Palace prior to 2023's editions is short. Willie Nelson was on the building prominently in 2016, celebrating "Rock of Ages," after performing at the building twice. A few living performers were depicted on the front of the building in the 1960s and 1970s, as well, including Lawrence Welk in 1963 when he came for the Corn Palace Festival. The same was the case in 1976 when Bob Hope performed at the festival, although his depiction was the thinly drawn caricature that became famous for Hope.

Greenway said Corn Palace staff is working on other ways they can educate visitors about famous South Dakotans for 2024. Of course, murals about still-living people carry their own risk too.

"And I've said this too, you're one bad tweet away from getting pulled off the Corn Palace," Greenway said. "With the cancel culture stuff, it's a tricky thing."