Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2004 - 48

A view from the
balcony looking at the
new stage on which is
Christopher Barreca's
New York apartment
setting for The Violet
Hour by Richard
Greenberg.

the house and even incorporated the exterior space of the fire
escape, necessitating its relocation. He described the
reconfigured Biltmore "as tight as a submarine" and began the
challenging job of preparing the documents for the reconstruction. Hazard and his staff knew that they had to retain the
elements that were already landmarked and gratefully they had
enough to work with to be able to reproduce the destroyed
segments with highest authenticity. Because they were designing for a theatre club, they suggested excavating under the orchestra floor to provide more space for a lounge and
restrooms. Polshek's Hazard provided the basic design of the
new Biltmore.
Once they had the space redefined, the Sweet Construction Company could proceed to the actual deconstruction and
reconstruction. The first order of business was to do a thorough clean-up taking care not to disturb the existing elements.
Tons of debris were removed from the theatre. The interior
was then measured as a guide to the reconstruction. Before
they could move into the house to begin the work on stage and
auditorium, they brought in the excavating equipment for the
new sub-orchestra floor. During the actual excavation, they
planted small seismographs on the side walls to monitor vibrations. They had to be doubly careful not to cause any more
damage to the decorative plaster work to avoid the added expense of re-authenticating the design elements.
When the excavation was complete, concrete was poured
for the floor of the created space. When that was in place, it
was necessary to create a new sloped floor for the auditorium,
a new corridor, and two new stairways leading from the or-

chestra to the downstairs lounge. The stairways had to incorporate rails and newels that matched exactly the surviving
ironwork used in the original landmarked stairways. The stage
was built to Meadow's specifications and was dropped one
foot so that the actors would be closer to the first rows of the
orchestra. The desired effect was to bring about intimacy between actor and audience that was important to Meadow and
the type of plays that MTC produced. (see schematic)
When the steel skeletal structure was inspected, it became obvious that sections of the steel had to be either cut out
and replaced or reinforced with new steel. Hazard described
the entire construction process as "watchmaking." After the
basic construction was completed, the next step was the reclamation of the interior. Evergreen Studio had the job of restoring the plaster work since only about 25% of the original
decorative plaster survived, Evergreen made molds of everything and created the new plaster in their studio. The walls
were replastered and the new decorative plaster was installed.
(Thankfully, the Biltmore had no murals to restore.)
The architects chose the color scheme of the house after
studying the style of Robert Adam that Herbert Krapp had favored. (He employed it in most of the playhouses that he designed.) They chose a limited palette for the interior, shades of
beige and rose with touches of sky blue and a muted red with a
subtle design for the carpeting. Behind the box booms, deep
red draperies were hung which tended to de-emphasize the
lighting instruments that loomed in front of them. The goal
was to create a warm and inviting atmosphere and the team
achieved it splendidly. They also achieved Meadow's wish for
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2004