Longterm Facility Capital Improvement Plans

I'm starting to look at evaluating items that need to be addressed for a facility that has been in operation for nearly 20 years. Where have others drawn the line? Seating for example. My seating is original, and needs rennovation or refurbishment. Conventional fixtures are also of that age, as is our speaker cluster.

At 15 we retired our original lighting & sound consoles, and replaced all of our soft goods. Together that came in close to $89K. Seating, fixtures, carpeting could potentially be much greater cost.

Have others proactively dealt with 20 and 25 year milestones for a facility for certain upgrades?

I work at a PAC in a public school system where there are 5 other buildings just like mine (2 are the exact same age, 3 are varying amounts newer). Budget concerns within our district have put maintenance into a fix upon failure mode which they've publicly stated is non-sustainable. A sales tax referendum is on the ballot to alleviate those issues. That being said, I think they're trying to find ways to make it work.

Internally we replaced the sound and lighting consoles using the funds we generate from rentals. Our speakers were upgraded about 4 years after the building opened, the originals were awful and they spent a good amount of money in the right place to create a nice sounding system. I'm thinking about adding aux fed subs and fill for the upper tier in the future.

Soft goods were replaced about the same time as yours (getting rid of FR for IFR). Carpeting is in need of repair in our space, however the seating is decent. Overall, our building has weathered the years with a modicum of difficulty. The biggest issue we're facing right now is the fly system. It hasn't been inspected in about 8 years and it shows. Fortunately, it seems like the ball is rolling in the right direction and we're in discussions to resume annual inspections and repairs. Our building was well taken care of by the same TD for about 15 of its 20 years and I've spent the last year I've been here upgrading the desks and repairing the low-hanging fruit. I personally feel the best insurance to longevity is a constant barrage of preventive maintenance. Having said that, I'm eager too to see what the booth has to say about the 20-25 year milestone.

I'm sitting on a 35 year old one right now... one that cost 51 million to build new. We have had tons of issues such as lowest bid inspections and such. We are sitting on original rigging and original dimming. 7 years ago they did a top to bottom capital improvement plan/study that has since gone nowhere.

I would advise you that while your looking at the "big" stuff (rigging, stage, PA, consoles, fixtures) also look at the stuff in the corners. HVAC, lobby, egress lighting, bathrooms, tile, elevators, roof, walls, plaster, public lighting, the list goes one... forever.

You first need to evaluate if the program that the building was built for still is in place. In my instance, this place was built for original works produced in house... we are now a 250 event a year road house. From that point on you can then drive your capital improvement money/time and figure out where you need the most the soonest. If you are thinking any major renovation/upgrades I would advise you to get a hold of a theatrical consultant that can do a top to bottom evaluation of your space and the needs of it. At that point you can really see where you fit into what the industry is doing. Now... the larger issue at least for me is getting funding for these projects. I could shut this place down for a year and still not get all the crap that needs to be done to get done.

I second Footer, having a Theatre Consultant come look at your space may be the best step to take. He/she can review all the major systems and write up a report detailing what's dangerous, what's fine as is, etc. and make sure that any upgrades address the biggest issues. I believe Bill Conner (who posts here regularly) and Schulder Shook are both in the Chicago area and may be the closest theatre consultants to you in Michigan. To look at the sound system, closest consultants I know are also in Chicago, the Talaske Group, who are very good. Acoustics By Design is also near you, but I've never seen their work so I can't speak to their quality.

I work as a consultant so my views are somewhat biased, but it's been my experience that school boards typically take the word of an independant consultant telling them "this is dangerous and needs to be replaced" / "this will likely break within the next 3-6 months, so I suggest replacing it now" much more seriously than a contractor or dealer that sells the replacement systems telling them the same thing.

Seems about par for the course. Our facility here just turned 18, and has a Theatre, Black Box, and Recital Hall. Here's where we're at for replacements:
Light board: Replaced all three at year 10. We're looking at replacing the theatre board again within the next few years, but the others will be fine.
Fixtures: We've been slowly replacing the original Strand Lekos with Source Fours. We're looking to switch most of our wash gear to LED within the next few years.
Dimmers: Three of the six CD-80sv brains have individually died and were each repaired about 5 years back. I've been looking in to switching out the theatre brains for C21 retrofits, and hanging on to the old ones as spares for the other 3. The packs themselves have held up well, but with the impending LED upgrade we'll need more relay packs. Anyone know of a good source?
Fly system: Re-roped everything in the theatre at year 16. Replaced the fire-curtain system too. Full inspection every other year.
Soft Goods: Set to be replaced next summer, with IFR. They've been repaired and re-treated somewhere in the middle, but not I'm not sure when.
Sound: Processing/crossovers were redone around year 10, but nothing else. Theatre managed to chug along until we replaced both the board and main clusters this past summer. Redid processing as well. The Recital Hall got a new board around year 12, but may not see many other upgrades soon. The old Theatre gear gives us a bunch of spares to toss in as needed. Most of the sound in there is live, so I'm OK with that for the time being.
Seating: Most has held up well, but the Black Box has stadium-like fold-out plastic seating that is starting to break. I've heard that replacement parts are limited, so that may be redone soon. It gets used as a classroom almost every day, so it'll be well justified.

I am currently dealing with the same issues in my space. We are now at 18 years, and we are in somewhat of a state of disrepair in terms of some things, and others are completely fine. Our seats are original, and minus a few stains, they appear in almost perfect condition. The chairs in the smaller theatre are folding chairs, and we are looking at get new ones in the next 2 years, they are kind of disgusting. The carpet is ok in the larger space, but will probably need replacement in 5-7 more years. Some of our fixtures are in need of new lamp base sockets, and one or two now need new reflectors, but the dimmers in our larger theatre are fine. In our Black Box, our dimmers are getting upgraded in the next few months, as the A/C goes off in there, and it gets quite dusty and disgusting. Our Larger theatre is now going on it's third sound system, and we are still suffering from the poor acoustics. Unfortunately, the space was designed to include a balcony, and it was cut due to budget, but the acoustic design wasn't changed. That is our biggest problem. We are on our second Lighting Console in the larger theatre, and the smaller theatre is getting another board to replace the aging Express 48/96. Our rigging system is in great shape, we got new purchase lines 3 years ago. The theatres are maintained by a theatre manager, and a crew of students. We do a straight play in the fall, an enormous musical in the spring, 4 dance concerts, 2 other Theatre Showcases, 50 or so music concerts, and about 30 other events in our large theatre throughout the course of a year. Our smaller space has 8 Theatre Showcases, 30 music concerts, and a dozen or so other events, plus daily dance classes, so they both get a good amount of use.

Consider including a "freshening" of the room to garner appeal of the nontechnical folks - like the ones who control the purse strings. Better, make the interior makeover the lead and by the way we should replace these systems at the same time, and maybe fix a few shortcomings along the way, not to mention ADA and "green" appeal. Somehow, a rigging system renovation has little appeal to the majority, whereas a "new" lobby or auditorium does.

BillConnerASTC said:

Consider including a "freshening" of the room to garner appeal of the nontechnical folks - like the ones who control the purse strings. Better, make the interior makeover the lead and by the way we should replace these systems at the same time, and maybe fix a few shortcomings along the way, not to mention ADA and "green" appeal. Somehow, a rigging system renovation has little appeal to the majority, whereas a "new" lobby or auditorium does.

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This sounds like how I try to convince my wife to let me buy a new TV by painting the living room.

BillConnerASTC said:

Consider including a "freshening" of the room to garner appeal of the nontechnical folks - like the ones who control the purse strings. Better, make the interior makeover the lead and by the way we should replace these systems at the same time, and maybe fix a few shortcomings along the way, not to mention ADA and "green" appeal. Somehow, a rigging system renovation has little appeal to the majority, whereas a "new" lobby or auditorium does.

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That is the strategy that 99% of the vaudeville renovations use... unfortunately it is all too common for money to run out as they get to the stage...

adonkle said:

I second Footer, having a Theatre Consultant come look at your space may be the best step to take. He/she can review all the major systems and write up a report detailing what's dangerous, what's fine as is, etc. and make sure that any upgrades address the biggest issues. I believe Bill Conner (who posts here regularly) and Schulder Shook are both in the Chicago area and may be the closest theatre consultants to you in Michigan.

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A third vote for hiring a consultant and a big thumbs up for @BillConnerASTC I've had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with Bill a couple times at conventions and I'm happy to report he's not just smart on the interwebs. I don't know what he charges, but I bet it wouldn't cost too much to hire him to come do an assessment of your current status. And that's an assessment that the district is much more likely to listen to.