Vancouver's Orpheum theatre closes for $60-million restoration
VANCOUVER - The three main civic theatres will be dark this summer, as the city of Vancouver puts the finishing touches on an ambitious $60-million restoration program.
The Orpheum will close from July through September for a $5.5-million facelift. The Queen Elizabeth has been shut since May 11 and will be closed until Nov. 13, as contractors finish a multi-year, $48.5-million renovation. The Playhouse will also be closed from July through September for renos, including the installation of a new marquee outside.
The big change at the Orpheum is new seats.
“We tried fixing them, but they just fell apart,” says Rae Ackerman of Vancouver Civic Theatres.
“The seats that are there are basically 1946 seats, [but] they were re-upholstered in 1976.”
Other upgrades include expanded women’s washrooms, better lighting in the auditorium and “sound and light locks.”
“On the orchestra level we’re doubling the doors, in effect to seal off noise from the lobby, the street and the lane,” says Ackerman.
Wheelchair seating will be doubled to 16, and there will now be space for companions to sit beside people in wheelchairs. Interior signage will also be improved.
The changes have been a long time coming.
“The basic planning of this was done 16 or 17 years ago,” says Ackerman.
What took so long for them to be implemented?
“Money,” he replies. “And coming up in the priority list. It’s always a combination of what’s the priority and where’s the money.”
One big Orpheum reno that won’t be done this year is the new rehearsal space for the Vancouver Symphony. The rehearsal space is being built as a civic amenity in the Capital condo project just north of the theatre.
The room is being built, but Ackerman says there isn’t money to finish it off.
“That is something like a $10 to $20 million reno,” says Ackerman.
“There’s no money for that now. The big stage extension space is a concrete box. It’ll sit there, the space is claimed. When there is money and a pressing need, then it’ll happen.”
When the Queen Elizabeth renos were announced in 2003, the estimate was $15 million. It tripled to $48.5 million over the years, something Ackerman attributes to “time and construction cost escalation.”
“That’s the main part of it,” says Ackerman.
“Construction cost escalation was going up at one-and-a-half percent per month until the recession, it was just skrocketing for everybody. People talked about cost overruns at the convention centre as if it was somebody’s fault. No. We faced the same thing, it was killing us.”
The 50-year-old Queen E will also be getting new seats this summer, along with a slightly different seating plan.
“We’re revamping the sight lines,” he relates.
“The centre block orchestra seats that were directly behind [each] other, we’re fixing that. We’re reducing the depth of the orchestra mezzanine...so it’s not [so] much under the balcony.”
There will be new control booths, new and expanded washrooms, new acoustic reflectors and improved heating and air conditioning.
The foyer will also be a lot more dramatic.
“We’ve opened the main lobby ceiling,” he notes.
“We’ve opened a huge atrium there, so it’s now a three-storey high space which connects the space, connects the people, connects the experience.”
The interior Queen E renos should be finished by Nov. 13, the Orpheum will be finished Sept. 23. The city has applied to a federal heritage sites program to restore the Orpheum’s neon sign, chandeliers and Chinese tapestries, so more renos may be on the way next summer.
The 2,780-seat Orpheum is the busiest civic venue, with about 280 events per year. But things slow down in the summer — Ackerman says on average there are only about 18 shows from July to September. The 2,800-seat Queen E usually has about a dozen shows in the same timespan, although the number goes up if a big musical comes to town.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainmen...s+million+restoration/1702541/story.html
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