90 80
OHIO STATE EDITION
6
A Supplement to:
422
6 80 24
6
4
71
76
199 30 30 75
68
30 77
71 23 22 68
4
70 70
®
70
22 71
75
77
27
September 23 2017
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50
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Vol. XVIIII • No. 19
35
52
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded in 1957.” Your Ohio Connection: Ed Bryden, Strongsville, OH • 1-800-810-7640
Cincinnati’s Historic Music Hall Sees $135M Renovation By Irwin Rapoport CEG CORRESPONDENT
The Music Hall in Cincinnati — owned by the city, built in 1878 and designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1975 — is nearing the end of a $135 millionplus renovation. The Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) awarded the contract to Messer Construction Co. in 2015. For decades, this historic, iconic home to Cincinnati’s renowned performing arts organizations has been surrounded by blight and is itself in need of significant functional upgrades. Cincinnati, the building’s tenants and patrons, and the residents of the surrounding low-income neighborhood have long recognized its ability to create jobs and provide cultural enrichment to the community, according the 3CDC website. 3CDC, a non-profit real estate company, bringing neglected buildings and spaces in our center city back into use, has partnered with the city to complete the exterior and interior renovations to the 225,000-sq.-ft. facility to expand Music Hall’s programming capacity and its ability to engage with the surrounding community. Work began in June of 2016 and the Music Hall will re-open in October. The building is currently leased by the Music Hall Revitalization Company and is home to the Cincinnati Symphony/Pops, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Ballet, May Festival, Cincinnati Arts Association and Society for the Preservation of Music Hall. The project is being funded by donations, with $130 million
The Music Hall in Cincinnati — owned by the city, built in 1878 and designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1975 — is nearing the end of a $135 million-plus renovation.
raised thus far with sizable donations from the city of Cincinnati totaling $16 million, state of Ohio totaling $5.5 million, Federal and State Historic Tax Credits totaling more than $50 million and private donations totaling more than $63 million. “Music Hall hasn’t had a major renovation in over 40 years,” said Scott Santangelo, Music Hall’s director of operations. “Its MEP/HVAC systems were layered on top of still older equipment, and have exceeded their life expectancy. As we worked through the years of pre-planning, we were experiencing various system failures that were impacting client events and daily building operations. Today’s renovation takes advantage of the opportunity to not only replace these systems with more efficient hardware and technologies, but to re-imagine the way they are installed and distributed. “Music Hall is actually three separate buildings, and PWWG, our lead architect, has been brilliant in their approach and attention to those details,” he said. “Structural reinforcement of the original building materials has also been made possible by the scope of the project, allowing us to replace old wood balcony trusses with steel, reinforce and stabilize the sandy foundations, and modernize the stage grid and shop areas.” The work also significantly improves accessibility, including new elevators at street level for anyone with mobility needs. The renovation adds 62 percent more restrooms and makes many other general improvements such as paint, repairs, replacing carpeting and reopening long-bricked windows in the historic façade. see MESSER page 2