A standing-room-only crowd packed the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven Wednesday night for an opportunity to voice their opinions on the proposed architectural design to replace the Owen Park bandstand.

In December the town planning board chose a design by Keith Moskow of Moskow Linn Architects after a year-long competition that began with 10 prospective designers. The bandstand dates back to the early 1960s and has a failing roof.

Wednesday evening’s community forum was a chance for the community to hear from the Tisbury planning board and Mr. Moskow.

Mr. Moskow’s vision for the bandstand includes a translucent roof and utilizes similar themes from his other work. In particular, he showed the audience examples of a bus shelter built for a school in Lincoln, Logan Airport’s 9/11 memorial and a chicken coop. Mr. Moskow said he chose to showcase the bus shelter during the presentation because it uses the same translucent roofing material and also glows in the dark as the proposed new bandstand would. “It’s not a huge project, but it’s an important one,” Mr. Moskow said. Residents agreed on the project’s importance, voicing numerous concerns, in particular the repercussions of a translucent roof, and how the design would impact the image of Vineyard Haven.

Many were worried about how a translucent roof would be kept clean and free of debris.

Mr. Moskow said his firm has “found that with rainwater it washes off. This project has slightly less of a pitch than some of the other projects we’ve done that are in a sense self-cleaning. The material is non-yellowing. Most of the time you see it used in very industrial applications.”

Andy Herr, who organizes music for the First Friday events held in Owen Park, brought up another potential issue with a translucent roof.

“The main purpose of this building having a roof is to have shelter from the sun,” he said. “The first event we had this past summer in June, it was so hot that all of the audience for the band was huddled on the side of the park in the shade of the trees. The musicians were hot. So, even if it deflects the light a little bit, we don’t really have any idea how much.”

Mr. Moskow acknowledged that the project could be created with a different type of roof. “I’m not advocating it has to be this material,” he said.

Rachel Orr noted that the bandstand has “a variety of uses.” Many in the boating community use it as phone and computer charging station, she said.

“Also, on First Fridays when we have a variety of bands, they’re not all acoustic, they use plugs, so the design needs to have electricity,” Ms. Orr said.

Mr. Herr agreed. “There are two outlets there right now and they’re not really in the best location.”

Holly Stephenson suggested the possibility of adding solar panels to the design.

“If you have a place that we’ve said is very hot and has a roof that takes in lots of sunlight that also needs to block the sun while being a center for recharging, I think that every redesign of any public space in Tisbury should look at making itself sustainable,” Ms. Stephenson said. “This seems like an opportunity to do solar panels that provide electricity for the bandstand. I don’t see that considered in any of the designs, but I think it should be in every public building from now on.”

Residents were also worried about how the design would affect the overall image of downtown Vineyard Haven.

Gerry Yukevich said the new project’s visual impact “ascetically suggests airiness and wings and flight, which would be jarring to my understanding of the town’s architectural identity and its location on our picturesque harbor. People will look at it from the water and think that’s a lovely building, but I wonder what it’s for?”

Local architect Bruce MacNelly spoke in favor of Mr. Moskow’s design. “It would be more accurate to call it a finely detailed updated version of the craftsman style architecture of which there are many examples all around town,” he said. “The most significant being the stone bank building right around the corner from Owen Park, which the roofline on the Moskow design skillfully mirrors.”

Ben Robinson of the Tisbury planning board said the forum was an opportunity for the community to weigh in on the selection process and the process going forward.

“It was great to have so many members of the community come out to discuss the design face to face. We are lucky to have so many knowledgeable members of the community that want to contribute,” Mr. Robinson said.

Next Wednesday, the Tisbury planning board will meet to discuss the points made during the forum, Mr. Robinson said later by phone. He also said there will be more opportunity before the project is voted on at town meeting for the public to discuss changes in Mr. Moskow’s design and the landscaping that will accompany it.