DUNLAP — Financial set pieces moved into place Tuesday as the Concord Community Schools system prepares to give the high school theater a dramatic facelift.
The school board viewed plans for renovating Beickman Performing Arts Center during their meeting Tuesday. The approximately $5 million project is part of a list of district building improvements set for this year.
The theater’s lobby will undergo most of the upgrades, according to design layouts developed by Schmidt Associates Inc. Concord hired the Indianapolis-based architectural firm to lead the design and engineering work.
“The whole idea of the lobby is that it will be like a performing arts center itself, so it’s like the theater before the theater,” Tom Neff, principal at Schmidt Associates, told the board during a presentation.
For one of the key features, the building’s front would be torn out and replaced by a glass façade and canopy supported by a steel frame.
“So there’s a lot of glass that will really let light transmit through,” Neff said. “It’s going to really be interesting and kind of an exciting and engaging space.”
An expanded vestibule would also be added to serve as a waiting space — a place for students to wait for a ride after a performance, Neff used as an example.
Inside, a steel frame would be installed along the ceiling to serve as a sort of rigging grid for setting up lighting and projection systems. That would make the lobby feel like a performance space in itself, according to Neff’s description.
“It really would be an experience coming to the show before you actually get in the show,” Neff said.
Other plans call for doubling restroom capacity while moving the restroom areas farther to each side of the building; setting up sensory traps at the theater doors to keep sound and light from blasting out into the lobby; replacing and improving seating in the auditorium; and running LED light strips down the aisles to serve as visual markers.
The project would expand the lobby by about 10,000 feet, Concord Facilities Director Nate Koets said after the meeting.
Renovation work is scheduled to begin in the summer with plans to complete the project in two phases before the 2019 holiday programs toward the end of the year, according to Communications Coordinator Julie Beer.
The theater renovation is part of about $15 million in building projects planned for the school district this year.
Superintendent John Trout said property taxes will not be raised as a result. The work will be financed through a bonding structure.
The board got the ball rolling through a series of votes that approved establishing the funding structure, advertising a hearing on the funding and the use of a building corporation to oversee the funding.
Meanwhile, the board approved bids for work on four building projects.
The bids recommended by Koets were from:
• Edward J. White Inc. of South Bend for $563,512 for chiller replacement and electrical work at Ox Bow Elementary School;
• Shambaugh & Son of Fort Wayne for $306,618 for chiller replacement at Concord Intermediate School;
• And Midland Engineering Co. of South Bend for $847,100 for roof replacement projects at East Side Elementary School and Concord Intermediate School.
Aimee Ambrose can be reached at aimee.ambrose@goshennews.com or 574-533-2151, ext. 316.
