Silver Spring's "community heart," the new downtown civic building, should be pumping in the spring of 2007.

Boston design firm Machado & Silvetti Associates Inc. has almost completed a preliminary schematic design for the civic building and veterans plaza and expects to have it finished in late February, said Gary Stith, director of the Silver Spring Regional Center, at a Jan. 18 design presentation.

Construction on the building, to be located at the corner of Ellsworth Drive and Fenton Street where a parking garage now stands, should begin in 2006.

Residents will have more opportunities to learn about the project at other public meetings and when it goes before the Montgomery County Planning Board for review later this year.

The civic building and veterans plaza, to which many residents have been looking forward, will be "the new community heart within the redevelopment of Silver Spring," Stith said. A civic building steering committee has been meeting regularly to determine the best uses for the building.

The structure will have three components: the building itself, a plaza and a pavilion that could be used for ice skating in the winter and concerts or other events during the summer, said Rodolfo Machado, a principal at Machado & Silvetti. He described his vision for the building as "contemporary, but not trendy."

Inside, the civic building will boast an atrium, offices for the Silver Spring Regional Center, classrooms for the Round House Theatre School, several courtyards, a full-service kitchen, a great hall and community spaces. The community spaces will be used for things like an art gallery, multi-media space and an exercise room, but also will be able to be used for other purposes, like meetings, Machado said.

Frankie Blackburn, executive director of advocacy group Impact Silver Spring, was on the original committee designated to come up with features for a new civic building and asked Machado if this building would have space for informal gatherings.

"We called it the living room back then," she said.

The building will have big open spaces in lieu of corridors that can be used for informal meetings, Machado said.

Also, Machado said, "There will be a memorial or monument to the veterans of all the wars."

There are four places where monuments and statues could be created on the outdoor plaza. Maryland artist Toby Mendez, who designed the Thurgood Marshall statue at the State House in Annapolis, will create the monuments.

However, Mendez said, they won't just involve sculpture and could also include quotes about Silver Spring history and American history, as well as excerpts from letters written by veterans.

"I think about using the entire space as an experience," Mendez said.

The idea for the civic building began with the redevelopment of downtown Silver Spring. In 1998, county officials tore down the Silver Spring Armory, which had served as a community meeting place for 71 years, because it occupied a prime commercial site at the corner of Fenton Street and Wayne Avenue that county officials and developers said they needed for redevelopment plans.

At the time, the county promised to replace it with a new, modern facility that could also accommodate a variety of civic uses.

As the focus for a broad array of activities, the civic building will host special events, exhibitions, festivals and diverse cultural activities and outdoor events.