ASTC-USITT Theater Renovation Design Challenge (2019)

Sketchup Rendering

This project was made possible by our faculty advisor Jon Young, who incorporated the design challenge into our academic schedules.

Information about the challenge can be found at the American Society of Theatre Consultants website.

The text below are excerpts direct from the team’s submitted concept statement. No changes have been made to the content.

Team Participants: Elise Christiansen, Brea Clemons, Caitlin Coffin, Olivia DeLuca, Mars Doutey, Nathan Hatfield, Grayson Merchant

ASTC Mentor: Andy Gibbs / Faculty Advisor: Jon Young

Land Advisory Report by the Urban Land Institute: ULI Advisory Panel: 2015 Griffin Memorial Hospital

Statement
"Our intention is to renovate and add-on contemporary accommodations to the 1936 Griffin Memorial Chapel and surrounding support structures. This theatre will produce theatrical productions, and the venue will also be configurable for different events like weddings, art shows, and film festivals. The support spaces near the site will serve as new artist housing, production shops, and administration offices."

Goal of the project
Norman, Oklahoma, currently lacks the facilities for a multipurpose theatre that serves the community. While the University of Oklahoma’s campus is home to many art venues, it is not as flexible with its rental programing and is not accessible to the young people of Norman, especially in the summer months. A year-round theatre company will give local actors and artists a place outside of the university setting to put on productions for Norman’s year-round residents as well as college students. It will also serve the community by having educational programing for K-12th graders, along with being a multi-use space for other events.

Exterior

History of the Building
The first structure on the hospital’s grounds was a school for women built during the mid-1800’s. With the nearby University of Oklahoma’s establishment later in that century, the school sold their facility and land to the Oklahoma Sanitarium Company in 1895. In 1899, leaders of the sanitarium hired David W. Griffin, a North Carolina psychiatrist. The hospital chapel was built in 1936, later in the facility’s history. Over those thirty years, the facility flourished, particularly during the 1930’s. Many programs and activities were added for the patients. This chapel and many other amenities were added as part of those initiatives.

Original blueprints

During and following that time, this area functioned as a “mini-city” for over 3,000 residents, with a wide variety of activities for them to partake in. It was considered an aspect of the patient treatment for them to work on the farm, for them to find a way to improve their mental health through performing these activities. The space also functioned not as an ‘insane asylum’ in the traditional sense of the word, but as a sort of early form of rehabilitation center. Former head of the institution David W. Griffin even personally chiseled off the part of the facilities sign that read ‘insane’ hung on their gate. With our theatre, we seek to make this mission a reality once more, but in an artistic sense. We hope for the once-flourishing facility to serve a positive impact on Norman residents as it once did for 3,000 patients in the past.

Interior, 2018

Scope of the project
We intend to renovate the chapel in its current configuration, but preserve its more historically significant features, such as the wood beams and large front windows. We would also be expanding the basement to house larger dressing rooms, storage for lighting and scenic equipment, along with an additional rehearsal space. To bring it up to modern code, we are designing a glass enclosure attached to the building to house lobby space, concessions, and audience accommodations, without affecting the architecture beyond recognition. We intend to renovate the nearby hospital facilities and reconfigure the floors to house office space, shop spaces, and rehearsal studios that can double for classrooms. In between the two sites, we are suggesting construction of an intimate black box theatre for cabaret settings, art galleries, and additional space for educational events and more avant garde programing.  

Future Site Plan

Circulation and Access
The main parking lot will be to the east of the Griffin Theatre, off of 12th Ave. From there, patrons walk to a main entrance, positioned where the original lobby resides. The lobby houses a box office. From the lobby, there are glass wings running parallel to the Griffin, with entrances into the house on both sides. In these wings are audience accommodations, mirrored on both sides, allowing traffic to each to be split. The wings also contain emergency exits from the building, something the current chapel is desperately lacking. There will be an elevator, one on either side of the lobby with stops in the basement, lobby, and balcony. A stage door with a large loading dock would be located near the actor and crew parking lot on the opposite side of the building.

Intended Support Spaces:

Dressing rooms 
Located in the basement, very close to the staircase up to the stage to allow for quick changes for the cast.

Green room 
Located in the basement. Small kitchenette with sink, fridge, microwave and toaster oven. Couches and tables for cast and crew to take a break during tech or eat a meal before a show.

Tech booth
Reconfigure the balcony area to house a tech booth with space for a light board op, sound board op, and stage manager. The balcony configuration would also have two spot op locations.

Load-in
Scene shop is on site, so renting transportation for scenery and building in pieces that would fit a truck would not be necessary. As scenery was built, it would be transported via 12’ scenery dollies across the courtyard to the covered loading dock, which has a concrete pad to back a truck up to (for any rentals with a load in) and an in ground lift to bring scenery carts to deck height. 

Lobby
Main lobby houses a box office and some casual seating. Along the sides of the building are the previously mentioned glass corridors, containing the concessions (which are tailored based on production type).  Audience members are encouraged to move about the main lobby and corridors before house opens, which helps keep people from overcrowding a single area.

Administrative Offices
Administrative offices are located in the nearby renovated hospital facilities. There will be multipurpose offices within the Griffin as well, for stage management use during the run of a show, as well as for box office and company management if desired.

Proposed Stage Format and Description
We are exploring creating a flexible playing area. We will be adding traps to the deck. We also intend to add a double purchase fly system that can be used for both scenery and lighting positions. We will also be adding a lift that can be used for orchestra or to move equipment from basement storage.

Seating capacity
The house will have flexible seating on the floor level, and a fixed balcony. The seating capacity of the space will be a maximum of 400 seats.

Sketchup Renderings (Nathan Hatfield)

Theatrical Equipment:

Lighting
We will be adding a complete lighting system, including three dimmer racks of 96 dimmers each. Our stock inventory will include a variety of conventional fixtures, LEDs, and moving lights. Our system will be configured for network and DMX, with network ports available near our standard hanging positions. We will add truss that can be raised and lowered for hanging positions in the house, and there will be a number of linesets over the stage that can be used for hanging positions. We will have an EOS Ti lighting console. We will have an abundance of stage cable in stock of varying lengths, including multicable and DMX. We will have a number of booms and pipes in stock to add lighting positions where needed. There will be storage spaces for lighting equipment in the basement. A projector will be part of our inventory, and it can be used for theatrical purposes, special events, or film viewings.

Drapes
We will have a number of drapes in stock, including a grand drape and valance, four sets of legs and borders, a full stage black traveler, scrim, and cyc. All of these soft goods will be on linesets, and will be removable to allow for maximum flexibility of the stage space.

Rigging
We will be adding truss to the house for hanging positions. It will be motorized for access. We will be adding a double purchase fly system with approximately 25 battens. A grid will be added above the stage.

Catwalks and Access
Truss and battens will fly in and out for access. In the air, they can be reached with bucket lifts or ladders. A freight elevator will be added to the building to move equipment and costumes from the basement to the booth level. The stage lifts will be able to be lowered to basement level for access to basement storage.

Sound
We would engage a professional acoustical engineer tosignificantly improve the acoustics and enhance the quality of the sound in the performance space. With the addition of a new digital sound system, the theater will provide an outstanding auditory experience for the audience member.