Music Hall's construction zone

It takes your breath away.

Springer Auditorium is completely gutted. The place where more than 3,000 people were singing Handel's “Hallelujah” Chorus barely six weeks ago is now a construction zone.

The magnitude of the demolition is dramatic. It's almost apocalyptic. Bobcats have pushed a huge pile of century-old dirt to the center of the room. The balconies are partially demolished. Below and in front of the historic proscenium arch, a large excavator is digging an enormous trench across the auditorium.

The haze of time seems to hang motionless in the air.

On Thursday, officials from Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC),  project manager of the $137 million renovation of Music Hall, led The Enquirer on a hard hat tour. It is the most extensive rehab of the nearly 140-year-old structure in more than four decades.

The vast scale of the renovation hits home when you walk through Music Hall's spaces, now stripped of seats, wooden flooring, artifacts and crystal chandeliers. At 280,000 square feet, Music Hall encompasses most of a city block in Over-the-Rhine.

Music Hall makeover takes center stage

Every inch of it is a beehive of activity. About 100 to 150 construction workers are on the site at any given time. They are working double shifts in order to adhere to a strict timeline that will allow the resident performing companies – the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, May Festival, Cincinnati Opera and Cincinnati Ballet –  to re-inhabit the building in just 16 months.

The job is going quickly, and is on time, said Jeff Martin, 3CDC vice president of project management. Most of the major demolition and asbestos abatement are now completed. Foundation and soil stabilization work has been done. New construction is under way.

And except for the initial finding of human bones when excavations began (because Music Hall sits on top of ancient burial grounds), there have been no other surprises.

More bones dug up at Music Hall

The South Hall: Music Hall is, in reality, three separate buildings that share a common facade. We start the walk-through in the South Hall, the former symphony offices, which are now gone. A new box office is under construction, and its lobby will have an elevator providing accessibility to all floors of the building. Currently, though, that is still in the abstract.

Just beyond are the new offices for the Cincinnati Symphony. Formerly a warren of small rooms and long corridors, the new space is open concept. Workers will be sitting in 21st-century cubicles on two levels, including a newly built mezzanine. Crews are installing new mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems to better serve the reconfigured spaces. Messer Construction was able to begin work on this area in January, while Music Hall was still presenting performances.

Backstage areas, currently in varying stages of demolition, will be transformed into new dressing rooms, lockers and other support areas. The world's largest Music Library will inhabit its former space. And just above it, a new, high-density storage area is being carved out of the former Timeline entrance – Music Hall’s longtime back door on Central Parkway. (Outside, the rear steps to that former entrance have been removed. Information is still conflicting as to whether there will be a public back door when the hall reopens.)

It can be disorienting. A dressing room door opens to – blue sky. The room's walls have been knocked down, revealing one of the old carriageways, which is open to the elements. Work is under way to cover both north and south carriageways, which will then house new restrooms on three floors, and mechanical equipment.

“Really, every square foot of this building is getting redone. We’ve reclaimed and re-purposed a lot of square footage, and also have found a lot of new footage in the carriageways, or in the high volume spaces where we can create mezzanines,” Martin said.

Springer Auditorium: Even though it’s 90 degrees outside, it is relatively cool in Springer Auditorium. Huge fans blow from openings where the large auditorium doors once hung.

Construction crews have removed the orchestra floor down to the dirt basement level. Heavy equipment operators are excavating the third orchestra lift, which will have a concrete retention wall. When the lift is up, it will become a stage extension that will allow the orchestra to sit about nine feet farther into the hall than previously. The workers are digging down through history, well below the stage, to make storage for wagon loads of chairs.

Soon, a new concrete air plenum will be added in the auditorium floor.

Plastic is still covering the balcony fronts from recent asbestos remediation. The air has tested clear, and the plastic will be coming down soon, Martin said, The ornate balcony fronts, proscenium arch and balcony posts will stay. The columns are structural. They are literally holding up the balcony and gallery.

It has all happened quickly. On May 29, the day after the final concert of the May Festival, the auditorium was stripped of seats and demolition began. The two-ton chandelier was removed and shipped to a restorer. Hardwood flooring was destroyed, for fear that asbestos may have seeped between the boards.

On the stage, the opera's rigging systems are gone. One can look all the way up to the roof, 72 feet up. In a corner, the CSO’s immense acoustical towers loom, wrapped in plastic.

Across the back of the stage, you can still see vestiges of the old organ loft from 1878. A new back-of-house crossover is being constructed there, to be at stage level for the first time.

A crew of cleaners from a demolition and abatement firm keeps up their rhythmic sweeping of the stage as the din continues around them. The stage floor, too, will be torn up. It will get a new wooden floor, but not until the end of the project.

The North Hall: In the opera’s paint and scene shop, workers are constructing a second loading dock of cinder block. Steel was recently lifted from 14th Street, over Music Hall’s roof and down into the north carriageway to build a structure housing new restrooms and a mechanical penthouse.

On the second floor, a planned rehearsal space is visible but not yet framed in. The old Critics Club, now gutted, will be transformed into offices for the Cincinnati Arts Association, which manages the hall.

The main lobby: Music Hall’s lobby is now bare of chandeliers, Reuben Springer's statue, the glass doors that separated the lobbies and the grand doors that led into Springer Auditorium. Out front, the entrance canopy has been partially removed. With it gone, the amount of light that now enters the lobby is striking.

Demolition has uncovered some interesting finds, Martin said. Marble was discovered in the north lobby, which matches the main lobby floor. Historic transoms were discovered above doorways, which will be preserved in some way. Upstairs, a window was discovered in a wall behind the spot where a Coke machine was stationed.

The gallery level: On the gallery level – Music Hall’s highest balcony level – workers are removing the wood that previously supported the seats. Music Hall's two balconies will be re-sloped and made steeper to correct sight lines affected when the stage moves forward.

All wood framing that is not structural is being demolished. However, the giant trusses that support the balconies will remain, and steel reinforcement is being added. Martin points out a steel beam that already curves around the front of the gallery level.

On this floor, one can also see remnants of the escalator, which is undergoing demolition, piece by piece.

Corbett Tower: Workers had a remarkable find when they tore out the drop ceilings in Corbett Tower, a storied space with a history of its own. What they discovered was a high, coved ceiling painted with a stenciled pattern, hidden for decades.

The space also reveals floor-to-ceiling windows, and an astonishing view of Washington Park. Nearly every inch of Music Hall will be touched by the renovation. But this space, Martin points out, is the only one that will undergo a real restoration.

To read more about the renovation, visit musichall.cincinnati.com.