It's the pits!

Well, the pit for the elevator, anyway. The construction crew has almost finished building the pit for the machinery for the lift, and they are now digging trenches and will soon lay rebar as we get ready for a concrete pour on Monday morning.

While the slab in the other parts of the building was in good enough shape to reuse, the slab in the back part of the building was too compromised and uneven in elevation to be suitable to support our new second floor. Also, since we're adding so much new plumbing (for the Patron Restrooms, Actor Restrooms and the Green Room Coffee Bar, it's just easier to start from scratch.

The crew has framed some of the new Technical Booth and installed its roof trusses, and it's so exciting to imagine a stage manager sitting at a desk, looking through the opening there, down into the auditorium.

Up top, the crew is framing the new parapet and preparing to cover the new trusses with plywood. After that, the temporary wall in the middle of the playing space (that is helping to brace the trusses) can come down.

This big expanse is where our solar array will be placed later in the summer!

Even with the temporary wall, you can start to see the big, wonderful volume in the auditorium.

Some random recent photos:

Here is the view south in the West Lobby...

...which, just a few months ago, looked like this:

The framed opening of the doors that will open from the Classroom/Rehearsal Room when we want to have a two-story set.

New beams for the lobby ceiling meeting original wood and uncovered brick.

Finally, I noticed this fragment of the lobby's old black and white check flooring from years ago. It was uncovered when the old concession bar was demolished.

More to come!

The construction site is buzzing this week! Sunny skies have allowed a lot of work to get done in several areas. 

Yesterday morning at 5:30am, the wood roof trusses that will support the new, higher roof over the auditorium arrived and were carefully lifted on top of the new walls. As you can see, bundles of them were laid flat and then separately put up in place. (the framed wall in the middle of the playing space is just temporary - there to help support this process).

In the back of the site, the crew is digging the pit that will contain elevator machinery and grading the dirt in preparation for the new concrete. As soon as the slab is in place the framing crew can start making walls appear for the new Patron Restrooms, Dressing Rooms and the big new floor above where the Classroom/Rehearsal Room will be located.

In the West Lobby, new floor beams are being hammered into place, roughly where the new Technical Booth will be. These replace the beams that were found to be in less-than-stellar condition. Another "Demolition Surprise"!

In the lobby, new wood beams have appeared to support the existing roof there, which we are reusing, and which supports the "MAIN STREET THEATER" sign and parapet. This is a good example of "on the fly" design: after demolition, the structural engineer determined that the existing wood joists (which we had planned on using) were not in good shape (they had been spliced too many times over the years) and he came up with a practical, inexpensive solution that actually gives us a more gracious and open space. I especially love the orange steel beam that we uncovered in demo, and which will remain just as it is. A little "patina" of our 75-year-old building that will adorn the new lobby.

What it looked like before with the old joists:

While our current rainy weather has slowed work a bit, framing was able to start again today. These photos show the auditorium taking shape and the "West Lobby" that will lead patrons back to the new restrooms (located where your photographer is standing!)

Very soon, new roof trusses will be installed to span (in a north/south configuration) that historic, intimate room for theater that we love so much.

In this shot, you can really see the forest of plumbing needed for a modern theater: patron restrooms, a backstage kitchen/coffee bar, two actor restrooms (both with showers), a utility sink and a paint sink. Soon, these PVC pipes will be joined by a pit for the elevator that must be dug before the new slab is poured.

I love "before and after" photo spreads. While we don't really have an "after" yet, we can still enjoy seeing the progress of the demolition and the beginning of framing from the same vantage point in the lobby, looking north. Soon the new second floor framing will come into view, one of the new stairs will appear to the left, and the cased opening to the right will get higher by about a foot.

Framing continues, and our new volumes begin to come into focus.

Getting rid of the structural columns was definitely one of the big reasons we needed to renovate 2540 Times Boulevard, but the low ceiling in the auditorium was almost as much of an issue - and not just for the "over-6-foot guys" like me!

As MST's productions have become more sophisticated, both production-wise and performance-wise, the need for more flexibility from our playing space has been apparent. A higher ceiling gives our set designers so much more room to play with, and our lighting designers will be able to illuminate the space in new and interesting ways - and they won't grimace at us tall guys when they're trying to focus a light that's hung just a few feet about our heads!

The new theater will still feel intimate, but the added volume will bring a new world of possibilities.

In the photo below, the crew frames the window that will look down from the new Stage Manager's Booth into the playing area.

More news soon!

Framing begins!

In the last few days the crew has been concentrating on the north side of the site. They have removed debris and dirt and gotten things ready for the delivery of new fill material that will help support the slab for the Patron Restrooms/Green Room/Dressing Room area. After the fill is in place, the PVC pipes that will handle our water needs back here will be put in place before the big pour.

Meanwhile, framing has started up at the front of the building. A new two-story wall is taking shape between the lobby and the auditorium. The big opening on the east side of the wall will be the new primary entrance into the auditorium for our patrons (there will be three other doors in and out, as well.)

Even with that bit of framing in place, you can begin to get a feel for our big open playing space!

Other issues being handled this week: the relocation of Comcast and AT&T wires away from the building so we don't inadvertently cause any service interruptions to our neighbors and two pesky electrical conduits for the Ovations Building that CenterPoint has to move before we can proceed with framing in the West Lobby area.

While we've had to, necessarily, demo a lot of the existing building, we want to keep and reuse as much as we can. This somewhat forlorn pile of lumber, which used to support the floor in the second-floor apartment, will reappear in a few months as a built-in bench in the renovated lobby. 

In addition, some of the glass blocks that used to adorn the exterior of the curved section of the façade will be inset into a wall in the Green Room coffee bar.

Reminders of the past as MST moves into the future!