Checking out a new facility

[BillConnerFASTC]

High school - 1500 seats - sort of rural area - Mt Zion Illinois. Some images. (Photos all reposted below in smaller size and as plain jpegs.)

 

[AlexDonkle]

Looks good!

Just curious, but where did the wood panels in front of the balcony rail come from? (Guessing they're acoustically perforated to avoid bouncing sound back to the stage, but seem like they also make hanging lights from the balcony rail a little trickier)

Love the yellow catwalk floors though.

 

[AxlD1234]

Can we talk about how this is the brightest ive seen a house before....Holy House Lights.

 

[techieman33]

I'm not really a fan of all the exposed steel. And don't really like that the back side of the catwalk isn't covered, I think it makes the whole project look unfinished. The rest of the space looks beautiful though.

 

[Les]

Wow, architecturally, that room is all over the place. The beautiful wood panels in contrast with the minimalist exposed "walmart supercenter" ceiling is a bit conflicting. I agree that it's bright (not a bad thing over all), but I'm not a fan of the fluorescent-looking lights in the sofft, or the zig-zaggy fixtures up above. The school bus-style box seating position is interesting; never seen that before (maybe I don't get out enough). First reaction was "ew, what terrible seats" but I guess I can see it working for a high school space. Hope someone remembers to regularly dust the sills of all those weird window-holes on the main level .

 

[Moose Hatrack]

In high school I had dirt and rope to work with... this is a place of endless possibilities.

 

[derekleffew]

Since I can't see the images, only a bunch of "do not enter" signs,

I'll just cause trouble...

In high school I had dirt and rope to work with...

What? You had budget for rope? Walked ten miles to skool ever day thru snow, even in summer, uphill both ways, and used autotransformer boards and radial incan. Lekos.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

The exposed structure is perhaps an acquired taste, but I find when set up for production - without the catwalk worklights on - it does tend to all blur a bit and house light and clouds come into foreground. Of course with lights off, it doesn't matter.

The problem we find with LED down lights lights (everything there is LED and dims pretty well) is if you pick beam spreads for low glare and layout for even coverage, you get more light. I suspect even our HOUSE FULL preset will not be as bright as these photos.

The wood panels are design and are reflectors - directs sound energy into seating. You see very little absorption in most of my projects because the acoustical consultants want to keep tea energy in the room to support the event, not suck it out and then have to rely on all electro acoustics. Its only the sound system fanatics who want to fuzz everything - because they don't know how to design for natural acoustics. Too may dead rooms because of this.

The side seating is I think wonderful. First, the shaping of the side walls it allows helps natural acoustics. It keeps more people closer to stage. But most importantly the "peopling" of the walls is very rooted in history with many precedents and simply makes the space feel better. All those rooms with monolithic side walls - can't stand them. As far as the orientation, I like loose chairs, so people can orient themselves, but the rows of fixed seats parallel to the fascia work pretty well for sightlines - your eye is closer to the rail and thus you can see over it better - and it's not unusual to socialize with people in front and behind as easily to the side. I wish you could sit there and see how special it is and how comfortable it is.

Well, I'm of course biased but thought it would be fun to share. Only sorry I didn't share previous ones - there's been like 5 or 6 this fall. Wish you all could tour it.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Since I can't see the images, only a bunch of "do not enter" signs,

I'll just cause trouble...

What? You had budget for rope? Walked ten miles to skool ever day thru snow, even in summer, uphill both ways, and used autotransformer boards and radial incan. Lekos.

Can't explain - seems to work on two platforms for me. Others seem to suggest they see the images. Sorry.

 

[techieman33]

The school bus-style box seating position is interesting; never seen that before (maybe I don't get out enough).

I occasionally work at a venue that has them, they typically sell a lot of those seats. People going to a show by themselves, or perhaps don't like sitting next to other people, or feeling like they're in a big crowd might find them appealing.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I occasionally work at a venue that has them, they typically sell a lot of those seats. People going to a show by themselves, or perhaps don't like sitting next to other people, or feeling like they're in a big crowd might find them appealing.

One of the workman said they were his favorite seats, another said his wife wanted one to keep there kids all in one place, and a teacher liked them for that group thing. Basically an opera box. I imagine some high school clicks will "adopt" specific boxes. I refer to them as lily pads; took me more than a week to lay out. They serve an important egress function for the balcony as well.

 

[chausman]

Can't explain - seems to work on two platforms for me. Others seem to suggest they see the images. Sorry.

I'm getting the same thing as Derek. Can someone upload the pictures to CB instead of whatever Google product the pictures are currently in?

 

[Michael K]

I'm getting the same thing as Derek. Can someone upload the pictures to CB instead of whatever Google product the pictures are currently in?

Same here in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari (ios), those of you that can see them, what browser are you using?

 

[Les]

Thanks for the insight, @BillConnerASTC. I suspect the lily pads could grow on me - especially since I appreciate not having neighbors if I go to a show alone. Good point also on the exposed architecture and it fading away as lights are brought down. Probably pretty rare to have the room in this bright of setting where we can see every nook and cranny. Also, of course, many of the camera angles focus on areas that most patrons won't likely be staring at. I think the jarring part for me was that it was white (I'm used to black unless it's a cloud), but again it generally fades in to the darkness anyway. Over all, it looks like a nice, clean, functional space. I think my primary qualms at the beginning were with intensity and focus, but didn't take in to account how the room will be viewed by the patron with houselights set a little lower.

I imagine a large, squarish room like this one is difficult to work with.

 

[techieman33]

The house lights being full on may be nice to keep on a preset for things like cleaning and work crews.

 

[Chris15]

I'm also getting grey no entry symbols in lieu of images...

 

[AudJ]

I was able to view the images yesterday, but late last night they disappeared, still gone.

I wonder about that much seating in a rural area - is the school that large, or are they planning on a lot of major rentals?

 

[JohnD]

Here is some info on the school:
http://www.mtzion.com/econdev/education.htm

EDIT: Census data shows substantial growth and very low unemployment so that might have been a factor.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

They compete nationally in show choir and took first at least once. That explains 1500 seats.

I don't know what to do about photos. I simply copied and pasted images.

 

[Evans Poulos]

Same here in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari (ios), those of you that can see them, what browser are you using?

I see them fine in safari on my phone.