Urban Core

a Stewart Perry Project

The Blind Pick

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Lyric-Collage-8-13-15Imagine an intricate network of steel weighing 25 tons. Now imagine that it needs to be lifted 64 feet to hang above a stage. This was just the situation at the Lyric Theatre, where our crews were challenged to place the stage rigging, which will allow for more elaborate sets and performances down the road. We used two separate cranes, which were positioned in the street. The method was a “blind pick” meaning that the operators had no direct visual on what they were hoisting, only the communication of two way radios. As you can see, it went off without a hitch. Bring on the big shows!

 

Steel City

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Lyric Collage 2Lyric Collage 1While Evergreene’s stunning restoration work continues, steel crews are preparing the Lyric Theatre to handle additional loads. Current work will allow the opera boxes to be installed to original specifications, and also for a more modern stage fly.

The majority of the dance floor has been removed, but we did leave a portion to access the balcony transverse beam, where Evergreene will be stenciling. The restoration team is also plaster casting on the first floor, and painting as well.

Bringing Back the Opera Boxes

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The original Lyric Theatre featured 12 beautiful opera boxes. When Panavision came to the theatre in 1958, the opera boxes were torn down to make way for the screen. Since we are trying to restore the theatre to its original design, EverGreene has been tasked with recreating the boxes. Since we don’t have drawings of the old theatre, the plaster panels you see in images above modeled after old photographs of the Lyric. Once painted, they should be an incredible part of the audience chamber.

Fine Tuning Paint Colors

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Inside the Lyric, we continue to move forward with plaster casting and restoration. Experts from EverGreene Architectural are fine tooling the moldings. In damaged spots, they are using pieces of existing material to create molds and fill in gaps where necessary. For example, they used a small patch of an existing air return, repeating the pattern to form a complete circle.

We are continuing to tweak the paint palate to ensure it is both striking and historically correct. The most recent iteration uses rich metallics.