Consultant: Move City Hall to Memorial Boulevard

A study on how the city should reuse aging school buildings recommends moving City Hall to Memorial Boulevard School, erecting a new police complex to replace Bingham School and renovating the central firehouse.

Memorial Boulevard School

The $57 million plan calls for selling the existing City Hall building, creating a neighborhood park at the O’Connell School site on Park Street and leaving the existing Beals Senior-Community Center where it is.

George Wallace, deputy public works director, said the city’s Building Committee recently received the draft study and plans to hear soon from the consultants. It has made no decisions and its members may or may not support the recommendations.

The $70,000 space needs study, which officials agreed to carry out last spring, is the product of an in-depth examination by experts from Drummey Rosane Anderson, Inc. of South Windsor who were asked to figure out how the city should best use its buildings, including schools that will be empty starting next fall.

City Councilor Henri Martin, who serves on the buildings panel, said the report is “sort of a general heads-up” about what’s possible.

He said officials are going to have to figure out how the proposals fit into the overall downtown revitalization effort. There are many options, Martin said, none of them certain. LINK TO FULL STORY.

Here is a link to a PDF of the consultant's recommendations.

Here is a link to a PDF of the consultant's figures on likely costs.

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

$14 million theater project shelved for lack of funds

The proposed $14 million community theater has been shelved.

"We don’t have the funds available to pursue it," Mayor Art Ward. "The money's not there."

The project, first proposed five years ago, has fallen off the city’s radar screen so thoroughly that it doesn’t even appear on the long-term wish list of plans that may someday get money.

"Timing has taken its toll," Ward said. "At this time, economically, it's out of the question."

The city has eyed the possibility of a theater at the 1922 school building since former state Rep. Roger Michele, a Bristol Democrat, first suggested creating a performing arts center there, an idea that only caught on after an ambitious redevelopment plan for the downtown mall site fell through.

Advocates said a community theater would provide a much-needed venue for everything from the Older Members Show to musicals by Bristol Theatre Arts. Shows by touring musicians and others were also possible, they said.

Creating a community theater at Memorial Boulevard School will cost $14.3 million, according to a final report by architects who investigated the option last year. The plan calls for overhauling the historic theater to replace ancient, broken-down equipment, add rehearsal and storage space, update lighting and the sound system, replace the seats and much more.
The $72,900 Simsbury-based Schoenhardt Architecture + Interior Design plan details the need for a new entranceway, a lobby and a host of changes to create a modern theater that could be used for music, plays and other events.

The plan projected a construction big opening in the spring of 2010, a timetable that’s already been shoved to the side by the sinking economy.

During the administration of former Mayor William Stortz, the city got formal approval to include the school within the downtown area that might qualify for millions in state aid if the city came up with an accepted plan for its downtown revitalization. It’s likely that if a theater project moved forward, the state would wind up paying for a portion of it.

The city has been working on the possibility of creating the theater at the school for several years, with a special committee leading the effort. It hasn’t met in months. Ward said there’s been no need for it to hold sessions because there’s nothing for it to do anymore.

Before the city began looking at renovating the aging school’s once grand theater, it had planned to construct a new theater on the 17-acre mall site downtown.

The $100 million mall revitalization project that voters gunned down in 2005 by dumping Mayor Gerard Couture, who favored the plan, included a small performing arts center near the corner of Riverside Avenue and Main Street. It was part of an overall scheme that also included a field house, a civic plaza and a new Bristol Boys and Girls Club.

In 2005, the Fairfield-based AMS Planning & Research firm determined that a community arts center for  theater, music and other cultural activities “can attain the support of a broad sector of the community and be well used.”

“Children and families” are considered the most likely patrons, the consultants said, because “parents and families come out in droves to see their children perform in Bristol.”

“The theater would have the technical capability, fly space and ambiance to accommodate theater, music and dance performances, rehearsals and many other events,” the report said.

The experts said the primary audience for a theater would be Bristol residents and others within a 15-minute drive.

Given “the modest household incomes and education levels among residents in the area,” the center should focus on “affordable and family-oriented programs, including community-based organizations” and events people can take part in, the study suggested.

At the time, officials expressed concern that many other venues in the region, from the Palace Theater in Waterbury to the Warner Theater in Torrington, were struggling to stay afloat. Ward said the recession has made it even tougher for them. He said that if Bristol had a theater now, it would be facing difficulties, too.

For the theater project to move forward, it would need the backing of the City Council and the Board of Finance. Neither panel has even discussed the theater project since the report came out months ago.

Memorial Boulevard School is slated to close when the city finishes two new schools, perhaps in 2015. The city has made no plans for the future of the historic school on Memorial Boulevard, which served initially as the city’s sole high school.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

City, DECD officials to meet today

Aiming to go over current plans for the city-owned former downtown mall site and the $14 million project to create a community theater at Memorial Boulevard Middle School, city officials plan to meet with state development leaders this afternoon.

The goal, said Mayor Art Ward, is "to bring them up to date."

"We're not just sitting idly by," Ward said, in spite of the recession.

While not idle, the city's not actually doing much.

The Bristol Downtown Development Corp. is switching from monthly to bimonthly meetings in order to save money since it doesn't have anything pressing anyway.

It does plan soon to seek potential developers, but there's no telling whether it will prove easier this time than during the first push last summer, when the sole response proved to originate with a Florida get-rich-quick marketer.

Ward said the city may not be in a position to spend much during these tough times, it's important to be ready in case funding does begin to flow.

"When the dust settles" from the recession and budget crunch, the mayor said, the city needs to be poised to move.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Theater at Memorial Boulevard to cost $14M

Creating a community theater at Memorial Boulevard School will cost $14.3 million, according to a final report by architects who investigated the option for the past six months.
The plan calls for overhauling the historic theater to replace ancient, broken-down equipment, add rehearsal and storage space, update lighting and the sound system, replace the seats and much more.
The Simsbury-based Schoenhardt Architecture + Interior Design plan details the need for a new entranceway, a lobby and a host of changes to create a modern theater that could be used for music, plays and other events.
Mayor Art Ward said the architects, who have worked closely with city officials for months, did “a fine job.”
“I hope it comes to fruition. We’ve needed it for years,” said Ken Ferris, the former music director at Bristol Eastern High School.
City Councilor Craig Minor said the plan offers a beautiful way to reuse a valuable community resource.
But whether the city can come up with the money anytime soon remains unclear. The report itself projects a construction bid opening in March 2010.
The city has eyed the possibility of a theater at the 1922 school building for several years as a way to lure people downtown by providing a much-needed venue for everything from the Older Members Show to musicals by Bristol Theatre Arts.
The 900-seat theater “is in dire need of renovation if it is to serve the community in the future,” the report says. “As it is today, the theater is almost unusable as a performance venue.”
“Every theatrical system is either absent or in need of replacement,” the report, submitted Thursday, says.
The lobby and backstage areas are wholly inadequate, it says, “and the seating is in poor condition” and lacks the sight lines that people expect now.
Moreover, the report notes, the drapery that surrounds the stage is in “very poor shape” and likely poses a fire risk.
The plan features an addition to the rear of the existing stage that would blend with the school’s architecture.
On the north side, where the parking lot is located, the architects call for a new entrance and lobby, including restrooms, a ticket office and an office for the theater.
It doesn’t say anything about who should manage the theater if it is built.
Before the project can move ahead, it will need the backing of the City Council and the Board of Finance. There is no firm timetable when either will consider the request.
Schoenhardt, which got $72,900 to do the report, is a leader in working with the design of schools and theaters.
It designed the Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center, worked on the lobby of Hartford Stage, designed the Greater Hartford Classical Magnet School and worked on renovations at the Thomaston Opera House, the Bushnell Theater and the Newport Opera House in Newport, R.I.
Memorial Boulevard School is slated to close when the city finishes two new schools, perhaps in 2015. The city has made no plans for the future of the historic school on Memorial Boulevard, which served initially as the city’s sole high school.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

A second theater for Memorial Boulevard School?

The city may have a chance to add a second, smaller theater at Memorial Boulevard School when it renovates the existing auditorium for use as a stage for community plays, concerts and traveling shows.
Consultants said there’s a chance to create a black box theater where the gymnasium is today.
It would have seating – though far less than the auditorium -- and would be used for rehearsals, concerts and some theater, they said.
Mark Hopper, a partner in the Schoenhardt architectural firm in Simsbury, said a black box theater offers more flexible space than the large stage upstairs.
He said that a black box setup would help to make the entire theater “a more viable arts space year-round.”
Bill Clegg, president of the firm, said that making a black box theater part of the overall plan would also make it easier to book events because there would be more options for the use of the space.
For instance, a band could rehearse in the black box theater while a musical is rehearsed on the main stage, he said.
It isn’t clear whether the black box theater idea would add to the cost. It’s possible that including it would allow for a smaller addition on the school and perhaps even save money in the long run.
Hopper said that adding the black box theater and cutting back on rehearsal space in a new addition might lower the overall cost of the project.
But it’s also possible the expense would push up the multi-million tab for the community theater project, officials said.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Tom O’Brien, a Board of Education member. “This type of things is nothing we can afford.”
O’Brien called it “ridiculous” to spend time even discussing the option.
But Barbara Pond, another member of the theater committee, said she thinks the black box theater “is a wonderful idea down the road” and perhaps a perfect venue for classical music concerts.
City Councilor Frank Nicastro said the public will eventually make its wishes known and officials will pay heed because of the importance of the issue and the emotional ties the community has to the school building itself.
What’s most important, he said, is to get “the most we can for the buck” without undermining the historical integrity of the structure.
“The perfect thing would be able to do it all,” Nicastro said.

What is a black box theater?

Typically, they are large square rooms with black walls. Seating normally consists of chairs on platforms that can be moved around to fit the needs of a particular show.
The entire arrangement is simple so that it can provide an intimate setting for a small-scale or experimental play, rehearsal or a concert that doesn’t need a larger auditorium.There are hundreds of them around the country, including many attached to schools, because of their utility in providing extra space, relieving some of the burden on what are often tightly scheduled main stages.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

What to do with Memorial Boulevard School?

If everything goes according to plan, the Board of Education will close Memorial Boulevard School in a few years and hand the keys over to City Hall.
What happens then, though, remains a mystery.
“Who the heck knows?” said city Councilor Frank Nicastro, a former mayor.
He said that among the uses discussed for the historic building have been to turn it into a senior center or to create municipal offices within it.
But figuring out the future of the former city high school, which has been a middle school for years, would be helpful in providing guidance to the architects who are working on a plan for turning its grand auditorium into a modern community theater that can handle concerts, plays and more.
They don’t know, for example, if the existing gymnasium beneath the auditorium will be needed in the future or if that space could be used to enhance the theater.
William Smyth, the recently retired finance director for the school system, said that educators intend “to get rid of the building” as soon as the two new kindergarten to eighth grade buildings eyed for Forestville and West Bristol are constructed.
That’s likely to be about three years from now unless the projects are derailed.
The city needs to decide, then, whether the gym should stay or go, Smyth said. He said that the park department and senior center both might want to keep the gym for their own uses down the road.
On the other hand, Bill Clegg, president of the Schoenhardt architectural firm in Simsbury, said his firm could make use of the space for a banquet hall or a black box theater.
Mark Hopper, a partner in the architecture firm, said that part of the decision-making is to set limits on what the theater can use.
Hopper said that figuring out the programs the theater would house and the parts of the building it can overhaul would provide guidance to the architects.
The city hasn’t had any serious discussion – in public at least – about the ultimate fate of the school.
But there have been hints.
For example, former Mayor William Stortz, in his 2007 state-of-the-city speech, asked, “Could that house
the Board of Education or the whole city hall or possibly an education/academic facility such as
criminal justice or culinary institute or an expansion of the Community college system?”
“Just think, if the Board of Education moved there then what would/could be done with their
building? Apartments, condos, possible conversion for the Bristol Boys and Girls Club with an
adjacent open lot, or even again, some other educational facility,” Stortz said.
The school board aims to close Memorial Boulevard and three old elementary schools and move the students into two new K-8 buildings.
The $120 million plan has received initial blessings from City Hall, but it’s unclear whether officials will continue to back the idea when they’re presented with property to purchase and bills to pay.
The state would pick up about 70 percent of the school construction cost. State officials have also told the city that it can renovate the theater without updating the entire Memorial Boulevard building to meet current accessibility, building and fire codes.
Memorial Boulevard opened in 1922 and served as the city’s only high school until 1959. It was converted to a junior high school in 1967. Since 1993, it has housed sixth, seventh and eighth graders.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

School pool in its last laps

The pool at Memorial Boulevard School where generations of students have learned to swim is in its last laps.
The pool would need “significant renovations” to remain more than a few years, said Tom O’Brien, a member of the Board of Education.
“Long-term, the pool will be closed,” he said.
In fact, O’Brien said, in “a relatively short time” the pool is likely to be out of service for good.
Marci Jones, the principal of the middle school, said the pool is currently used as a teaching station for physical education classes.
Jones said that half the students in the class are in the nearby gymnasium while the other half are in the pool. They switch off, she said, so that everybody gets a turn in the water.
Swimming courses take place from November until spring break, the school’s website says, and all students “are required to take part.”
Educators plan to close the school as part of a switch to a kindergarten to eighth grade system that will open two new schools and shutter three old elementary buildings and the former high school on Memorial Boulevard.
Consultants working on a possible community theater in the historic auditorium, which would remain even if the school closes, said that the pool area might be perfect for a “green room” where actors and performers could prepare before going on stage.
The pool and gym are located under the auditorium, with the pool underneath the stage itself.
Assuming the school projects aren’t delayed long, there probably wouldn’t be more than a year or two when the school would remain open with a new theater operating. There might not be any overlap at all.
Bill Clegg, president of the Schoenhardt architectural firm in Simsbury, said that theater experts need to know the fate of the pool to figure out how best to redesign the historic school’s auditorium to add rehearsal, dressing, storage, set and other rooms needed to make it more functional.
City Councilor Craig Minor said he had “held out hope” that the pool might have a place even after the school closes.
But O’Brien said it can’t remain.
The building was finished in 1922 and served as the city’s only high school until 1959. It was converted to a junior high school in 1967. Since 1993, it has housed sixth, seventh and eighth graders.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Architects estimate Boulevard School theater project will cost $8 million

Putting a community theater at Memorial Boulevard will likely cost about $8.1 million, according to a preliminary estimate by the architects that city officials plan to hire Thursday.
The Simsbury-based Schoenhardt Architecture + Interior Design was far and away the top pick of city officials who reviewed submissions from 14 firms to carry out the initial design work for the project.
Both City Purchasing Agent Roger Rousseau and City Councilor Craig Minor said the firm put an impressive amount of work into its initial proposal to the city.
The Community Theater Committee plans to recommend hiring the firm for $72,900 at its meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday in the meeting room on the first floor of City Hall.
The architects included a time schedule that estimated detailed plans could be done by year’s end, with construction bids solicited next spring. A new theater could open as soon as the summer of 2010, the firm indicated.
However, it’s unclear at this point where the $8.1 million would come from, particularly given Comptroller Glenn Klocko’s recent recommendation that the city refrain from taking on any elective projects until Bristol’s debt load decreases.
Schoenhardt’s plan calls for putting an addition on the rear of the existing Boulevard School stage that would include a loading dock, performers’ space, an office, storage for props and other equipment and more.
It also eyes the possibility of putting another small addition on the north side of the school that would serve as a lobby and ticket office for the theater.
In a preliminary sketch included with the firm’s presentation, the lobby appears as a glassed-in structure that blends with the historic architecture of the school only in part.
The rear addition would be much closer to the existing style of the post-World War I building that originally served as Bristol’s high school.
According to the architects’ estimates, it will cost about $2.2 million to renovate the existing building, $2.7 million to add the rear addition, $500,000 to put up the lobby, $1.1 million to renovate the stage and theater and $600,000 to purchase needed theater equipment, furniture and fixtures.
All of the fiscal estimates are subject to change as the experts delve more deeply into the project, perhaps discovering alternatives that would cheaper, or perhaps more costly.
Schoenhardt has extensive experience working with theaters and schools. It designed the Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center, worked on the lobby of Hartford Stage, designed the Greater Hartford Classical Magnet School and worked on renovations at the Thomaston Opera House, the Bushnell Theater and the Newport Opera House in Newport, R.I.
The theater committee’s recommendation would head to the City Council in April for final approval.
Rousseau said he’s working on the contract terms with Schoenhardt so that the architects can get to work quickly once the city gives the green light.



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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Great symphony, crummy setting

** Review **

By JACKIE MAJERUS
BRISTOL – Musical humor is always a treat, and the audience at Saturday night’s performance by the Nutmeg Symphony Orchestra was lucky enough to hear some of it.
The regional orchestra, stripped of all its string players and jazzed up with saxophones and a euphonium for a “Winter Winds” concert, offered up a fine evening of music, some of the best of it by Connecticut composer Thomas Duffy.
Duffy’s “Butterflies and Bees!” and “A Parisian in America” led the concert in the Chippens Hill Middle School auditorium.
“Butterflies and Bees!” is as beautiful and busy as the name suggests. Duffy said last week that the piece, which he wrote in 1999, was inspired by an illusionary painting by M.C. Escher painting that shows birds in flight at the top, swimming fish at the bottom and a morphing of the two in the middle.
Duffy called it an “optical illusion for the ear,” and indeed it was.
His 2000 piece, “A Parisian in America” followed, and it was my favorite of the night.
I love it when music makes me laugh, or at least chuckle and this piece delivered.
Knowing the story behind the piece – a stuffy Frenchman visiting New York City has a devil of a time trying to cross the street and ultimately gives up and decides to try Canada instead – helped quite a bit.
Duffy is masterful at plucking slices of familiar music, blending them and overlapping them into delightful, chaotic confusion.
“A Parisian in America” offered the clash of marching bands, busy city streets, taxi horns, the warping of the French national anthem and more.
It was just plain fun.
Listening to the vivid scene Duffy imagined made me wonder if the vast artistic talents of Yale’s director of bands extended to a sketchbook. The story is short, funny and clever – he even includes the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – and would lend itself to an animated cartoon short.
Maybe I was imagining such a thing because the surroundings in the school auditorium were so painfully drab.
This was the second time I saw this quality symphony perform in the middle school auditorium, and if anything makes the case for a community theater, this does it.
While turning the house lights off would have helped, it wouldn’t have saved the show from the curse of an ugly hall.
Duffy says his tone poems, or musical stories put the listener “in another world” for a little while.
That’s a tall order for someone sitting in the CHMS auditorium, which has a “you’re in a middle school auditorium” design theme.
If the cinder block walls weren’t enough, they’re painted a lovely institutional gray. The aisles are carpeted, but the floor is unpainted cement – functional for a middle school, but
The stage has curtains on the sides, but they weren’t used, and it’s not clear that they could be. Behind the stage, the back wall isn’t covered with a black curtain or even a backdrop.
Instead, the uninspired monotony of the gray cinderblock is broken up by one large pipe, about two-thirds of the way up the wall. It juts out from the back wall and heads skyward, until we in the audience can’t see it anymore.
There is one adornment, however. A round, plain, standard-issue school clock, the kind that you first see on the wall in kindergarten and don’t stop looking at until graduation, is right smack in the middle of the back stage wall.
I can see how the clock would be useful for students and teachers who are suffering through an assembly, but it doesn’t do much for an audience willingly in attendance.
Now that the former Bristol Symphony Orchestra has taken its show on the road and gone regional, the group plays in the Mum City only a time or two each year.
Maybe by the time they come back for an adult show – a children’s concert at Bristol Central High School is on the calendar this spring – there will be a municipal auditorium in the works.
A public performing arts space – for music, theater, movies and more – is desperately needed and long overdue in Bristol.
After presenting Duffy’s work, the orchestra turned to another Yale composer, the late Paul Hindemith.
They played his “Symphony in B flat Major,” which conductor Marshall Brown declared the finest piece of music ever written for a band.
It’s a “tour de force,” Brown said, commissioned by the U.S. Army, featuring fugues upon fugues.
Certainly it was dramatic, and well received. Brown even asked how many had heard it before. A show of hands revealed that it was the first time for many.
After a short intermission, the symphony delivered several marches and then a couple numbers accompanied by more than 30 student musicians, many from Bristol Central or Bristol Eastern high schools.
The young musicians fit in flawlessly, and it was no doubt a treat for them to perform side by side with professionals.
It was good to see a bigger crowd this time. Though there were clearly parents and grandparents in attendance to see the younger performers, hopefully they will return to see the symphony when their children aren’t on stage.
Brown did his best to give the audience the back story to the works presented by the orchestra that night, even having the symphony play snippets of some pieces to illustrate his point.
The next concert, Brown told the audience, is a collection of Bach, Brahms and Beethoven. It’ll be presented March 29 at Avon Old Farms School.
The final concert of the 2007-2008 series, “The Majesty of the Organ,” is scheduled for Saturday, May 17 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington.
For more information, go to http://www.nutmegsymphony.org/.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

"Driving Miss Daisy" at TheaterWorks

Here is reporter Jackie Majerus' review of "Driving Miss Daisy," a fabulous show at Hartford's TheaterWorks that is slated to run until Oct. 14:

Times change, chauffer Hoke Coleburn tells Miss Daisy, but "they ain't changin' that much."
The delightful, funny and sometimes-touching "Driving Miss Daisy" by Alfred Uhry, hasn't changed much in 20 years, either.
It's still great.
Directed by Rob Ruggiero and starring Rosemary Prinz as Daisy Werthan and Mel Johnson Jr. as her driver, Hoke Coleburn, the show is playing now to an enthusiastic audience at TheaterWorks in downtown Hartford.
The show offers top-notch acting, an interesting set and a lot of laughs.
The story revolves around the relationship between Miss Daisy, a retired white Jewish schoolteacher, and the gentle and patient Hoke, the black man that her son Boolie (John Leonard Thompson) hired to drive her around after she crashed her car.
Miss Daisy's initial hostility toward Hoke slowly thaws over their many years together.
Though she's the one who is educated, he's easily her intellectual equal and by far the more perceptive of the two. It's often his dry remarks or wry commentary that bring the biggest laughs.
While Hoke slows down over time, Miss Daisy truly ages. Prinz does an outstanding job showing decades of aging in a 90-minute performance.
The set and costumes were nicely done, but Vincent Olivieri, who did the sound design, deserves special recognition.
The perfect timing of each appropriate sound, every time Miss Daisy or Hoke opened or closed a car door or whenever Hoke put the car in gear added much to the show's realism.
"Driving Miss Daisy," which completes the 2006-2007 TheaterWorks season, runs through October 14, at the theater at 233 Pearl St.
TheaterWorks starts its 2007-2008 season in November with "Doubt," John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer and Tony-winning drama that runs Nov. 9-Dec. 23. After a holiday break, the theater returns Jan. 25 with a comedy by Douglas Carter Beane, "The Little Dog Laughed," followed by three dramas: "Blackbird," by David Harrower running April 11-May 25; Pulitzer winner "Rabbit Hole" by David Lindsay-Abaire from June 20 to August 3 and finally, the New England premiere of "Gee's Bend" by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, which runs September 5 through Oct. 19, 2008.
Tickets range from $35 to $55, but a season of five shows sells for $122, and "rush" tickets are $10 at show time with a valid student identification. Discounted parking, with theater validation, is available a half block from the theater in the Goodwin Hotel garage.
For more information, call the theater at (860)527-7838 or see its website at theaterworkshartford.org.

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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com