JEANNA DUERSCHERL | The Roanoke Times

Andrea Hagy scrubs the walls at the Art Museum of Western Virginia to prepare for its final show.

JEANNA DUERSCHERL | The Roanoke Times

Workers prepare for the Art Museum of Western Virginia's final show.

JEANNA DUERSCHERL | The Roanoke Times

Now that Roanoke's art museum is moving to a new location downtown, the Harrison Museum of African American Culture will move into Center in the Square.

Center in the Square is planning an $18 million to $20 million renovation that rearranges the building's interior and restores its 1917 facade, but leaves the rest of the Roanoke City Market area alone, President Jim Sears said.

The plan, the final details of which are being worked out, will be presented to Roanoke City Council on April 7, Sears said this week. The presentation is expected to include drawings by Spectrum Design as well as video. Sears said construction could begin in the winter of 2009.

Initial reactions to the plan have been positive -- a sharp contrast to the storm of criticism the center received last spring, when word leaked out it was looking at changes that could eliminate or relocate some market stalls. Sears stressed this new proposal concerns the building only.

"I'm not sticking my neck out again," Sears said. "We don't go beyond our footprint."

For this project, Sears said roughly half the renovation costs could be covered by grants and historic tax credits, as the building is restored to its early-20th century roots. The center will also request help from the city, Sears said, and will mount a capital campaign. City spokeswoman Melinda Mayo confirmed Wednesday that the center has asked to make a presentation to the council April 7.

"It hasn't been determined yet whether it will be the afternoon or the morning," Mayo said. She said the purpose of the presentation is merely informative "as far as we know."

Center in the Square, founded in 1983, houses Mill Mountain Theatre, the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge and the art, science and history museums of Western Virginia.

It is certain to undergo significant changes in the coming year, as the art museum moves into its new $66 million quarters two blocks away and changes its name to the Taubman Museum of Art. In the art museum's wake, the smaller Harrison Museum of African American Culture will move to the center, and other center tenants will expand into the remaining space.

Among the changes expected to be unveiled April 7:

--The Roanoke Weiner Stand, a Roanoke landmark located on Campbell Avenue, would move back from the street and into the space currently occupied partly by an ATM, at the back of the adjacent parking lot. The Weiner Stand's current space would be partly occupied by the ATM and a box office selling tickets to multiple cultural events.

--The Little Dipper restaurant on Market Street would move around the corner to roughly the current location of the art museum's gift shop, becoming next-door neighbor to the Weiner Stand in its new location. Access to the restaurants would be by a vestibule between the two.

--Glass canopies and newer bricks would be removed from the building's exterior, and the original 1917 facade restored.

--The Arts Council of the Blue Ridge and Center in the Square's administrative offices would move to another building still to be decided on. The center's office space would go to the Science Museum of Western Virginia, and the Arts Council's space would be partly used for dressing rooms for Mill Mountain Theatre's Waldron Stage.

--The center's atrium would be radically renovated, with interactive exhibits reflecting the center's multiple tenants. Roanoke native Dorothy Gillespie's colorful, confetti-like sculpture will not only remain, but also be more noticeable in the new configuration, Sears said, with her work echoed in a ceiling motif: "We'll celebrate her design even more."

Warner Dalhouse, a critic of the earlier renovation concept that involved changes to the market area, approves of the new plan.

"I think they're on the right track," he said. "They've got plenty to say grace over in handling the building itself."

Others who would be affected by the changes said Wednesday they had no complaints.

"Yeah, it's all right," said Weiner Stand manager Gus Chacknes, noting the restaurant would have a little more room in the new configuration.

The science museum's executive director, Nancy McCrickard, said the museum will use its new space for displays for "the youngest scientists in our community" -- i.e., preschoolers. "This is very exciting for us. There will be a lot more exhibit space," she said.

"They've been working really well with all of us, trying to work things out," said Little Dipper co-owner Sandy Wilkinson of Center in the Square officials. The new plan gives them "a lot more exposure" partner Shellie Crowder said.

"We're in favor of it," said Laura Rawlings, executive director of the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge. "It's going to be pretty exciting, I think." Rawlings noted that the center will continue to cover the council's building costs wherever it ends up.

The opening of the new art museum in November is expected to attract national if not international attention.

Sears said the art museum should have a year or so in the spotlight while the center completes its renovation work.

But after that -- look out.

"Center and the art museum together will put Roanoke on the map" for arts and culture, Sears predicted.

He said plans for the renovation would be made available in the center's atrium for public comment in early summer.