Accents of stone and wood, bird-shaped light fixtures, and a migratory bird theme all work together to make up the Branson Convention Center’s and the Hilton Convention Center Hotel’s overall theme.
With a month’s worth of construction still left to complete on the two buildings, it’s easy to assume designers gained inspiration from the Tri-Lakes Area’s natural beauty. That’s also something which Hiltons of Branson Director of Sales and Marketing Bill Tirone confirms.
Hilton will act as manager of the convention center on behalf of the center’s owner, the city of Branson. Tirone is the first to admit that working in the brand new convention center is an exciting experience.
“I’ve seen a lot of convention centers and this one is definitely one of the most beautiful,” Tirone said prior to giving a tour of the building and its adjacent 294-room Hilton Hotel.
“One of the visions the architects had when they were designing the building was that they wanted to bring the beauty of the Ozarks into the building,” Tirone said pointing at the hotel’s entrance facing Main Street. “That’s why you see a lot of the stone elements around the columns throughout the hotel and the convention center.
“You also have that great wood beaming on the outside of the building. Then the curve of the building represents the gentle flow of Lake Taneycomo, and the glass reflects the blue of the sky and the blue of the water, again bringing in that natural beauty.”
On the inside of the convention center, the theme continues, focusing on the wildlife of the Ozarks.
Migratory birds are prevalently displayed throughout the center all the way from the ceiling, with bird-shaped light fixtures, to the walls of the ballroom where the shapes of birds are painted to the panes of glass in the doors of meeting rooms, which have an artist’s depiction of a feather under a microscope.
“The lights are the really cool part of all of this,” Tirone said. “Those are going to be unique to this convention center.”
The center has 72 of the bird lightswhich contain two concealed, incandescent LEDs, one in the top the fixture and the other in the area of the wings which are made of a correlated plastic. Every other bird will also contain a speaker to provide a show in the center’s 23,000 square-foot ballroom.”
“Our audio and visual director is currently undergoing training to program the birds,” Tirone said. “Being in the theater capital of the world, we wanted our birds to be able to put on a show, so they will and through optical illusion will look like they are flying in a circle around the room.”
“When guests see this one-of-a-kind system, it will take their breath away,” said Hiltons of Branson General Manager Mark Hartman. “Best of all, it allows groups to put their personal stamp on an event by giving guests a unique and very memorable visual experience.”
The Branson Convention Center as a whole will have 220,000 square-feet of meeting space, which will contain the ballroom; a 47,000 square-foot exhibit hall; and five meeting rooms in sizes between 1,200-5,500 square-feet, each of which can be split in half and the largest into to four rooms.
Each of the meeting rooms will be named for the tributaries of Lake Taneycomo.
The Branson Convention Center and Hilton Convention Center Hotel is set to open Aug. 17 and will host its first event on Aug. 24-25. On Sept. 7-9 the center will hold a grand opening ceremony, with an expo of local businesses, live shows, special tours, golf and fishing outings, and an indoor concert.
Information courtesy of Branson Daily News