Aging Harvard Theatre Receives a Facelift
August 23, 2006 • Home of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals for more than a century, Harvard University's theatre is undergoing a major renovation that will transform the Cambridge, Mass., fixture into the New College Theatre, a modern facility with a new theatre, rehearsal rooms, classroom, and meeting spaces. Construction began in June 2005 and is expected to take about two years to complete.
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A Potain HDT80 self-erecting crane helps renovate Harvard's aging theatre.
According to Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean William C. Kirby, Edith and Benjamin Geisinger Professor of History, the theatre and its furnishings were in disrepair and had outlived their practical lives. He said major construction is needed to make it an up-to-date, modern space for theatrical productions. The renovation will replace the stage and nearly two-thirds of the existing building. The front façade and front one-third of the building will be preserved and restored.
When completed, the building will include a 272-seat theatre, a rehearsal room on the top level that will be the same size as the actual stage, dressing rooms, orchestra pit, prop shop, and building mechanical equipment. The restored front third of the building will contain a meeting/classroom on the top level, lobby and box office on the first floor, and offices on the lower level.
A year into the construction, steel erection was taking place this summer at the New College Theatre. Steel erector Daniel Roury Construction,
According to Kevin O'Connell, vice president of Shawmut Equipment, the Potain HDT80 self erector fit through a narrow alleyway and was set up in a courtyard next to the jobsite, eliminating the need for larger cranes in nearby streets. A benefit of this machine is its ability to reach over the tops of the surrounding buildings for materials to reach the jobsite, O'Connell said.
