Exhale, Saucer Heads: Saucer Watch 2015 is over.

When JFK Plaza / LOVE Park reopens in 2017 it will feature a refreshed version of the iconic Fairmount Park Welcome Center, the round mid-century modern pavilion in the southwest corner of the park, which will be outfitted for a “significant food and beverage operation.”

At a public meeting Thursday night, the LOVE Park design team, led by Hargreaves Associates, announced that the saucer is part of the final design concept for the public space between the Parkway and City Hall.

Since the last public meeting about LOVE Park’s redesign in March, KieranTimberlake, the architecture firm on the design team, finalized an analysis of the saucer building.

While keenly aware of the building’s historic significance, they approached the structure first from an agnostic and practical standpoint: Can it be reused and at what cost?

KieranTimberlake found the saucer – essentially a concrete umbrella – is structurally viable, and it turns out, nicely adaptable. But that’s not to say there isn’t major reconstructive surgery to be done.

Other than the structure, most aspects of the building have outlived their useful lifespans, said architect Richard Maimon, the partner at KieranTimberlake leading their work on this project.

The single-pane tinted windows will be replaced with more transparent and energy-efficient glazing. That, combined with new lighting, will help restore the saucer to its light and luminous past. The old roof will be replaced with a green roofing system. And the building’s largely original systems will be modernized as well. When it reopens the saucer will at last have an ADA accessible ramp and bathrooms that can be entered from the park. These upgrades will be selected to ensure affordable operating and maintenance costs, durability, and environmental sensitivity.

“What has diminished the building over the years are precisely the elements beyond their usable life, the glazing, finishes, railings, stairs and ramp. All those issues allow us to bring the building back to the kind of luster that was in the original architects’ idea of a pavilion open to the city,” Maimon said. “This allows us to really reimagine the building and reinvent it in a way in the spirit of the original conception.”