For nearly 50 years, thousands of patrons have crowded into the Clarence E. Robbins Auditorium at Columbus East High School to watch high school productions, celebrate D.A.R.E. graduations and listen to the Columbus Philharmonic.
Quite simply, the auditorium is a gathering place. Students of years past and present have poured their hearts and souls into their roles on the stage. Family members have filled the rows of chairs as they watched with pride as their sons and daughters performed solos in front of an audience in the hundreds.
That same auditorium is unrecognizable now as construction crews demolish the interior of the 48-year-old structure, in preparation for a renovated and improved facility.
Once covered by a musty brown carpet, the long, steep aisles are stripped down to the concrete. The wood that once held the stage together is crumbling. The black chairs — all 900 of them — are gone.
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It’s a $3.8 million renovation that’s more than a year in the making after the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. school board authorized the district to seek bids for the auditorium project in November 2018. In July 2019, school board members approved a $3,819,144 contract with Columbus-based contractors Dunlap & Company.
“This is a classroom,” said Randy Surface, BCSC project manager. “It’s also a community asset.”
New seating, better access
As part of the renovation, the current 900 seats will be replaced with new, wider chairs, and the facility will be made more accessible to individuals with disabilities with ramps at the sides to provide accessible paths to seating positions, side exit doors and the stage.
Three inches will be added between each row to add for easier accessibility, and the individual chairs are bigger too, allowing patrons more comfort when they are in the audience. Previously, if an individual sat in the middle of the row and had to exit mid-performance, Surface said they might as well have suffered through because there was no way of getting past people’s knees.
Surface said the entire concrete floor is also being saw-cut into pieces and carried out, exposing the original dirt under the building. This allows crews to re-contour the ground to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life.
The upper level of the auditorium is currently sloped at 17%, and the lower level is sloped at 12%. ADA now rules that a floor slope cannot exceed 6%.
“Clearly there was a need for change,” Surface said.
Upgrading sound systems
The corporation is also upgrading the current sound systems and adding listening devices for the hearing impaired. New sidewall, rear wall and ceiling treatments will be added to improve the current acoustics. The large sidewalls are currently covered with wall carpeting which is no longer permitted.
Columbus East theater director Kevin Welsh said the sound system could be cranked to its highest volume and people would complain about it being too loud in one area, but six rows back during the same show, others said they couldn’t hear the performance.
“That tells you there were different pockets in the space that were not adequately addressed,” Welsh said.
Upgrades will also be made to the theater lighting systems and housing and general lighting fixtures to accept LED fixtures.
“LED lighting instruments are quickly becoming standard in the industry, and that’s what you see almost every place that produces a live show,” Welsh said. “The DMX (Digital Multiplex Signal) control lighting is also industry standard. We didn’t have either of those things. We currently have a light board that is capable of those things but it was trying to talk to instruments from the 70s.”
A new orchestra shell will also be added, and the rotting wood on the stage will be replaced. The catwalk at the top of the auditorium will also be made safer and more accessible to the students who work there during shows.
The last major update to Columbus East’s performing arts wing did not include the auditorium. Welsh said it extended from the back of the stage wall backwards, including the dressing rooms, choir rooms and band rooms. Welsh said this renovation is long overdue.
“The BCSC administration recognized that just putting in new seats and a new floor is not what this auditorium needed,” said Kevin Welsh, Columbus East theater director. “Since it’s a space that the general public is going to be using, they’ve put in the time and effort and money to make sure it’s fixed. Not just updated but fixed. Knowing at least this, it’s very gratifying that they see the value.”
Performances moving
Welsh said Columbus East productions and programs, including the spring musical and choir and band concerts, will take place in the Columbus North Judson Erne auditorium this year. Nearly $1 million was invested in the North auditorium, not counting $1.6 million covered by insurance to clean and restore the facility after an overhead light blew and ignited plastic on the fixture, resulting in extensive smoke and soot damage, including the loss of about 35 seats that caught fire.
The improvements to the Erne auditorium included new seating, LED lights and the installation of seven heating and air conditioning handlers.
Anytime a project is done at one of the district’s schools, Surface said the corporation wants to ensure there’s parity between the schools. That was one of the driving forces behind this project in addition to updating the outdated equipment and accessibility.
Surface said he’d like to turn the auditorium back over to Welsh for use in May, but said that’s still an early prediction. By Christmas, Surface said he hopes to have a better target completion date.
“Updating this facility will allow for so many things to happen here,” Welsh said. “The Columbus Philharmonic hardly ever comes here because their clientele don’t want to deal with 17 percent inclines and they can’t because we didn’t have locations for wheelchairs or walkers. With this upgrade, Cummins Inc. can have meetings here. REMC can have meetings here. Dance studios can use this space. We could even get touring companies to come in. Having both this facility and Columbus North’s auditorium open allows for this artistic community to have that many more artistic events.”
Welsh said students are excited to work and learn in the new space. He said the potential for education opportunities is great.
“I’m excited to learn for myself and also teach the kids on a system that will be closer to industry standard so if one of my kids leaves here and goes on to a college theater program, they will have already learned the stuff that’s industry standard as opposed to last 20 or 30 years when they would come out with a lack of education,” Welsh said. “Once it’s upgraded, the educational possibilities will be upgraded as well as the effects for the audience.”{!–[if gte mso 9]}{xml} {w:WordDocument} {w:View}Normal{/w:View} {w:Zoom}0{/w:Zoom} {w:TrackMoves/} {w:TrackFormatting/} {w:PunctuationKerning/} {w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/} {w:SaveIfXMLInvalid}false{/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid} {w:IgnoreMixedContent}false{/w:IgnoreMixedContent} {w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText}false{/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText} {w:DoNotPromoteQF/} {w:LidThemeOther}EN-US{/w:LidThemeOther} {w:LidThemeAsian}X-NONE{/w:LidThemeAsian} {w:LidThemeComplexScript}X-NONE{/w:LidThemeComplexScript} {w:Compatibility} {w:BreakWrappedTables/} 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[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Who has a hand in the project” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Contractors: Dunlap & Company
Architect: CSO Architects
Mechanical/electrical/plumbing engineers: Stair Associates Inc.
Structural engineer: Lynch, Harrison & Brumleve Inc.
Theatrical consultant: Schuler Shook Inc.
Audio/visual consultant: dBA Design Group
Acoustic consultant: Purcell + Noppe + Associates Inc.
[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Scope of work” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
More than $3.8 million in renovations are being made to the Clarence E. Robbins Auditorium at Columbus East High School this year.
Plans include:
- Remove auditorium floor and replace with 6% sloped floor in front seating area and tiered seating area in rear with 6-inch steps
- Create ramps at sides to provide accessible paths to seating positions, side exit doors and the stage
- Replace auditorium chairs with new chairs that are a little wider; new seating capacity is 819 with all handicapped seating in use
- Upgrade sound systems and add in listening devices for hearing impaired
- Improve acoustics with new sidewall, rear wall and ceiling treatments
- Repaint and replace finishes within auditorium
- Remove 4′ x 8′ acoustical panels glued to bottom of roof deck over stage
- Add additional supports to catwalk floor systems
- Upgrade theater lighting systems to accepted LED fixtures and add new LED units as needed
- Replace house and general lighting fixtures with single system dimmable LED light fixtures
- Rework and replace stage rigging systems and stage curtains
- Replace band concert shell
- Add stage edge safety lighting system and replace orchestra pit cover
- HVAC improvements
[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Dunlap & Company” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Dunlap & Company has been in continuous operation in Columbus since 1873, making it the oldest General Contractor in the state of Indiana.
Dunlap has constructed and renovated several churches, hospitals, businesses and schools across south-central Indiana, including Columbus Regional Hospital, Bartholomew County Public Library and Central Middle School.
To learn more about Dunlap & Company, visit dunlapinc.com.
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