Curtis -
OK, another detour, this time to Curtis, MI - a small, eastern UP fishing resort village,
nestled in-between Manistique Lake and South Manistique Lake. It is about an hour's drive northwest of the big 'ol bridge.
For a town this tiny, they have a pretty interesting project going right now - a new Performing Arts Center at the
Erickson Center for the Arts. The history of the site & the center is pretty neat. The
property currently provides community space and nature trails, and for a place this small and a budget this tight ($1.65 million), the plans for the new performing arts center look pretty good. $1 million of that construction cost was donated by the
Nancy A. & Richard P. Erickson Foundation.
Source:
ECA / Blomquist Architects
Per the Center's website,
Quote:
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The new facility will house a 160 seat theater with a large permanent stage and a graduated floor for better sight lines to the stage. In addition, it will provide a welcoming lobby and backstage dressing rooms for the performers, features not present in the current facility.
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The designer - Blomquist Architects - is "local" - based in Iron Mountain (about 2.5 hours further west). It looks like they do some
cool work, most of it local to Iron Mountain, but also stretching into Wisconsin & Illinois. Gundlach Champion Inc. is the contractor leading construction. It is on track to open in late Spring.
Some construction photos are included with this article - I enlarged them a bit, even though they were quite blurry and small to begin with -
Source:
The Mining Journal | Courtesy ECA
I'll admit it - I've never heard of Curtis, and the closest I've ever been is Newberry - about 20 miles northeast, population 1,368. If this is you too, just watch this gem of a video, below, to become a more informed individual. The current Erickson Center for the Arts gets a feature at around 23:15 -
"It Won't Hurt Us To Go To Curtis" 
• Video Link