08/28/2006 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Council August 28, 2006 Page 4 Essentially what they are doing here is taking gallery level which is now a hallway and razing the floor of that up to be the same height as the floor level of the main lobby so that you are not changing levels. They will build up the floor of the auditorium so that the cross-aisle is also at the same height as the floor of the lobby. By doing that they can achieve ADA compliance and building something called sitelines which in theater design is very important. The objective is that you can see over the head of the person two rows in front of you. Ideally you can see the floor at the front of the stage meaning that anything that happened on stage, any kind of performance that was taking place, you would have good visibility and that is what they are striving to do by breaking up the floor and changing the levels like that. In the back of the packets, there are black and white drawings which illustrate the sitelines and how they can be achieved which is very critical to having a viable performing arts venue. They also can use that cross-aisle with ADA compliance seating as a sound mix area so that if there is ever any crew working on this project they need to have accessible space as well so that can also be used for sound and light control. The other thing they are doing with the two walls that taper in is creating a feeling of intimacy, a balcony. Those areas would have loose seating in them and be at the same level as the stage and cross-aisle so that when you are looking at them from the front seating block they almost appear like balconies. For a smaller performance, you can use the front half of the auditorium. For a larger performance, you can use the entire space. They are breaking away from that long existing thin space and sculpting the walls, improving acoustics, creating the intimacy that you want to have for a performance. In addition to that, they increase the stage depth to 30' to double the stage depth. They have also increased the stage width to 33'. They are actually going wall to wall. They have the required ADA lift so that handicapped performers can get down to the back stage areas and up the stage as well as stairways for two means of egress. You would come through the loaded area on the south side and could load scenery on the stage right off of the truck. In addition, a sound light block has been created so that if during a performance someone comes in you are not disrupting the performance by letting a lot of light in if you have a matinee performance. Down at the basement level, there is stairway that comes down with hairy turns. It is not ADA compliant. There is a main space that does not have a place for the actors to hang out. There are no dressing room spaces. There is a kitchen area which is underutilized and not needed by the Civic Center since they already have a facility. The multi-purpose room would only receive a face lift, i.e., new carpeting, new ceiling tile, things like that. In the new scheme of things, there will be an ADA lift and two new stairways down. A place for the actors during a performance would be created -the green room. There would be a different room for the amplifiers and audio equipment. The mechanical room would be left alone. Dressing rooms would be created out of the kitchen. A second green room would be created to be used by the community as well as rehearsal space. There are two new existing classrooms which would be converted to dance space. Support space for rehearsals for performances would be provided as well as classroom space which can be leased as well.