What's up with parkade?

Finishing touches are being put on the new memorial parkade in downtown Kelowna.

But, one of those has some people shaking their heads.

What appears to be wire-grate fencing is being erected around the facing of the structure.

"It's a decorative system designed to mitigate the impact of a monolithic concrete parkade in the middle of downtown," said project manager Andrew Gibbs.

"It's the idea of putting some form of foil or screen up that downplays the big structure."

Gibbs says something similar will be going up at the library parkade in the next few weeks that will be a more artistic version along the street frontage.

"Because they are downtown, and they are development permit areas, the challenge was 'what can we do that is relatively inexpensive that dresses up the building facade, or downplays that concrete appearance?'"

Planner Ryan Smith said the city is not exempt from design permit standards, and a concrete box wouldn't cut it.

He didn't have a cost for the screening, but said rumours of a $1.2-million price tag seem high.