PROVIDENCE – Veterans Memorial Auditorium will start a multi-year $14.8 million renovation and expansion project in June, the R.I. Convention Center Authority announced Tuesday.
The work includes a glass-enclosed addition on the side of the building overlooking Interstate 95. The 12-foot-wide addition will include a new loading dock, walkway connecting the rear of the auditorium to the lobby and additional restrooms.
Other improvements include renovated backstage dressing rooms and expanded concessions facilities along with upgraded lighting and sound equipment for the main stage.
The authority, which manages the facility for the state, said the work would progress in stages.
“Veterans Memorial Auditorium is a true Rhode Island treasure and we are pleased that the legislature and administration recognize the need to restore this one-of-a-kind theater,” said David A. Duffy, chairman of the authority. “The Vets has been unable to attract high-profile entertainment due to operational deficiencies and a lack of amenities; these renovations will bring the theater into the 21st century while preserving its historic charm and enable management to expand its programming, which will facilitate economic growth.”
Northeast Collaborative Architects, formerly Newport Collaborative Architects, will oversee the design.
Michael Abbott, a principal at Northeast Collaborative, said the work would represent the first major renovations to the auditorium since it opened in 1946. Backstage work will occur during the summer. The construction of the addition will occur during the summers of 2012 and 2013, Abbott said. The schedule will allow the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and Festival Ballet Providence to maintain their usual season schedules.
The money for the work comes for the Rhode Island Capital Plan Fund. The state approved the multiyear project in 2009 but the authority is just now ready to move ahead, Abbott said.
Abbott, who serves on the board of the separate Veterans Memorial Auditorium Foundation, said work is long overdue. He said show promoters considering the venue for events are attracted to its size – 1,914 seats – eloquent architecture and location in downtown Providence. But promoters are unimpressed with the facilities backstage, which include just one toilet for cast and crew members, a stage loading door one story above the roadway and no way to reach the front of the auditorium without cutting through the audience.
“When they see the facilities backstage they just faint,” Abbott told Providence Business News Tuesday afternoon.
Abbott also noted that NCA won a competitive bidding process to design plans for the renovations and it was the state, not the foundation, that awarded the contract.
