# I wish our stage was deeper...



## derekleffew (Aug 23, 2019)

Spread out, timpani !

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

> *TIMELAPSE: HISTORIC GRAND THEATER WALL MOVE*
> A major milestone in the renovation of our grand new home: The historic theater’s rear wall has been moved, as one 625-ton piece, almost 35 feet east to accommodate building a larger stage. The team of experts that made this possible truly deserve a standing ovation!



More at https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2018/10/02/see-inside-the-msos-warner-grand-theatre.html .


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## Van (Aug 23, 2019)

How can that possibly be cheaper than building a new wall then demoing the old one?


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## derekleffew (Aug 23, 2019)

IDK. @BillConnerFASTC , @RickR ?


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## RickR (Aug 23, 2019)

Someone did the math! And I'd love to see their work.

Hmmm;
That's a lot of wall! It must have some serious steel inside it to even consider moving. It was likely overbuilt by today's standards. Big concrete pours are much harder to manage. Maybe they get historical credits for presentation. 
??


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## JD (Aug 23, 2019)

Van said:


> How can that possibly be cheaper than building a new wall then demoing the old one?


I suspect it was about preserving the wall as a historic element.


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## TheaterEd (Aug 23, 2019)

"Federal preservation officials said it must be saved if the MSO is to use historic restoration tax credits to finance the restoration."

Link


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## Van (Aug 23, 2019)

TheaterEd said:


> "Federal preservation officials said it must be saved if the MSO is to use historic restoration tax credits to finance the restoration."
> 
> Link


Ah! They could afford it, thanks to Bureaucracy!


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## danTt (Aug 23, 2019)

I wonder how much more it cost to get these credits.


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## tjrobb (Aug 25, 2019)

Sigh. Our stage is 27'-6", and can't move it back or it blocks the alley. Sigh...


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## RonHebbard (Aug 25, 2019)

tjrobb said:


> Sigh. Our stage is 27'-6", and can't move it back or it blocks the alley. Sigh...


*@tjrobb* Don't be so defeatist, if it's impractical to move your US wall back, consider moving your entire audience area and lobby further from your stage. 
How much could this possibly cost*??* 
Toodleoo! 
Ron Hebbard


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## BillConnerFASTC (Aug 26, 2019)

I've worked on a couple where we got the alley closed. It's a challenge.


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## TimMc (Aug 26, 2019)

Van said:


> Ah! They could afford it, thanks to Bureaucracy!



No.

"Bureaucracy" has nothing to do with this, CONGRESS does. Every regulatory agency, every Board, every "administration" (NASA, FCC, NTSB, NHTSA, as examples) operates and exists solely because Congress passed legislation that the president signed.

Elected senators and representatives decided historic preservation was a good thing and created incentives for it. Don't like them? Don't apply for them or take & use their money.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Aug 26, 2019)

Bureaucrats wrote the rules for what is historic preservation and what the citizens must do to get the incentive. 

All the details and numbers and quantities for ADA - bureaucrats.


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## JohnD (Aug 26, 2019)

The rules for historic preservation sure have changed. In 1970ish OSU built a new performing arts center.
Originally there was this auditorium:


To the right of this was the coolest building on campus:


You can see the auditorium in the background. There was a small theatre added to the back of this for the theatre department.
Here is what they built:


The section on the left is the original auditorium, they just knocked off lots of trim and built a shell on the inside and outside. On the right hand side is the parking lot they built where Old Williams Hall used to be. Sigh. Oh yeah, on several of the gable ends of "The castle of the Prairie" at the top were some large round limestone trim pieces. Vivia Locke, who was at the time the head of the theatre department coveted one for her garden. It was amazing how easy it was to roll one off and let it hit the ground, and yep, the ground shook. Or so I'm told...…...


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## josh88 (Aug 26, 2019)

We're a historic theatre, but I always thank god we aren't a "historic" theatre. We were built in 1895 and have the first unsupported balcony in the US, but as a current venue, we're only 20 years old, because like most of the other, we turned into a movie house for a long time, shut down and finally a group got together to save the space and renovate it to turn it back into a roadhouse. So we have the history but architecturally on the outside we're just a city block mostly square building so nobody cares what we do about anything.


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