Chase Fine Arts Center gets much-needed facelift
Once, during a “Thriller” production at the Kent Concert Hall, a dancer got a 5-inch sliver in her foot from the splitting stage planks, a student stage technician said.
Ben Bielefeld, a senior majoring in sound design, said the recent upgrades to the hall are a “huge upgrade in safety and aesthetics.”
The Chase Fine Arts Center was built in 1967 and little has been updated since then, said Jarrod Larsen, director of production services for the Caine College of the Arts.
However, due to safety issues, the Kent Concert Hall and many other aspects of the Fine Arts Center have been updated over the summer, and there are many more to come, Larsen said. He said the changes are independent of the new college formation.
Larsen said the stage in the concert hall was made out of maple planking and wore out to the point where it couldn’t hold up a piano.
“We had to identify holes in the stage with caution tape so we could maneuver pianos around them,” Larsen said. “We still lost some upright pianos and it was not somewhere you’d have walked in high heels.”
The college has been lobbying the state legislature for maintenance money to fix the safety concerns for the past 10 years. They finally received approximately $750,000 last year, Larsen said.
Shaina Runolfson, also a stage technician and senior majoring in stage management, said, “There were at least 20 sections of yellow caution tape we had to move pianos around and it was hard to keep it clean. The new stage is great; it is black, so it is a little more theatrical than the previous wood color.”
Runolfson also said the new “mouseholes”, or tracking, allows cables to be run under the stage, not over it.
“It was dangerous having cords running over stage during a show. We had to tape and carpet them,” Runolfson said.
Another problem that has been fixed were airflow problems. Larsen said when fog and haze effects were used on stage for a show, the smoke would escape to the hall because of the poor design. This made for poor visibility backstage and in the halls as well as the problem of the effects setting off smoke detectors.
To remedy the problem, airlocks were put on the doors to keep smoke from getting out. The seals also block sound and light so the hall is isolated, which is better for shows and classes, Larsen said.
Another major concern was American Disabilities Act issues. Larsen said there was not enough handicap-seating, so a new section for wheelchairs was added. Before the renovations, handrails ran down the middle of aisles, making them not wide enough for a wheelchair. Now the rails run on the sides of the aisles.
The changes haven’t been simple, Larsen said, but a little like “If you give a mouse a cookie” in the sense that if one thing was taken out and fixed, another thing had to be taken out and fixed as well to avoid complications later on incomplete projects.
“The college does not have the money to fix some things now and have to re-fix them later to fix something different,” Larsen said. “Anything we are doing now, we won’t be able to do for another 40 years.”
For example, pulling out the handrails caused damage to the carpet, so it had to be replaced. When the carpet was pulled out, this exposed access to the aisle lights, which were energy inefficient and inadequate, with bulbs lasting only three months.
Larsen said the new lights are LED and much brighter and efficient; the lights will now last for 11 years.
“While it is safety driven, the hall has a whole new look and feel, especially getting rid of the orange carpets and seats,” Larsen said.
When the stage planks were replaced, the floors were “sprung,” creating give for dancers.
Larsen said, “If wood sits right on top of concrete, there is no give, causing shin splints for dancers.”
The Kent Concert Hall renovations are not the only ones. Another project in the works is a cafÈ for the building. The cafÈ will go to where the vending area is. USU dining services will run the cafÈ, Larsen said.
Larsen said they found that most students in the building spend 30 hours a week there, and that is about 4,000 students.
“There is nowhere to eat here. Students have to leave and come back, and sometimes they just don’t eat,” Larsen said.
Runolfson started a committee to get signatures to petition for the cafÈ.
She said, “I want a cafÈ so bad. I was part of the beginning of this project. Today, I haven’t left since 8 a.m., and many nights I don’t leave until 11 because of shows. I just want a hot bowl of something or a cup of coffee.”
But the mouse-cookie scenario has struck again. As the ceiling and wall was torn out to make room for the cafÈ, problems with electrical and fire alarm systems were exposed, Larsen said. This has set the project back from its August completion date to January.
Funding has come from renting the venues at the center, and some from the student music and theatre fee. Larsen said this fee makes music and theatre programs free to students, as well as helps with the update costs. So far, $18,000 from the fee is going towards the cafÈ.
“The administrative fee committee decided the cafÈ was the priority for funding this year. As a total, we are looking at roughly $98,000, right now we have $40,000,” Larsen said.
Dining services has developed a menu that will be unique to the building as well as hours that will better match the schedule of students, like the 60-70 students in the symphony orchestra who are in the building until midnight, according to Larsen.
When and if funding becomes available in the future, other renovations include bringing the building up to code for seismic activity as well as fire and electrical safety issues.
“We’d like to update to current standards. We don’t have to, but we should. The ceilings for example don’t meet code, they are just safe enough,” Larsen said.
Currently, the building does not have enough restrooms. However, there is not anywhere to put them, an addition would have to be built, Larsen said. Also, the fine arts center’s electrical service is capped out, and can’t add any more plugs without taking from other places.
“Right now we have some computer needs, but back in ë67 they did not have a lot of computers,” Larsen said.
The sum of all renovations for the center would be approximately $17-20 million, he said.
“These updates are not exactly sexy since it is all about things behind walls, but these projects make our center safer,” Larsen said.
—storee.powell@aggiemail.usu.edu