Stage Directions: This is a major milestone in the renovation of the planned new home for MSO. The historic theater’s rear wall has been moved 35 feet to the east as one 625-ton piece to accommodate building a larger stage. The team of experts that made this possible truly deserve a standing ovation. MSO sent special thanks to its General Contractor, C.D. Smith Construction for capturing this footage.
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Looking at the headline of the article, I was expecting to see some large, realistic wall set piece, potentially larger than the proscenium, being moved into place onstage. Now imagine my shock when I realize that it quite literally meant that the eighty-six by one hundred foot, six hundred twenty-five ton back wall of the theatre. Not to mention, of course, that it is a historical structure, and that the wall is more than ninety years old. Through the sheer power of four hydraulic rams, the renovators were able to simply move this giant flat plane of stone and concrete a whole thirty-five feet backwards. All of the effort put into this mammoth project was all based on the National Park Service requiring a larger space in order to qualify for receiving historic tax credits. To me, it seems like a significant amount of effort for receiving tax credits, but reading more into the article, it became evident that this will be improving the theatre itself by giving it a larger stage, which was apparently lacking in the past. Regardless, I will forever be astonished by this incredible task which has been completed.
This is literally one of the coolest videos I’ve seen. Physically moving an 86’x100’ wall should not be possible, but this construction company made it possible. I think it is really amazing the extent they went to in order to preserve the historic building architecture. They needed to make the stage bigger to adapt to more modern issues, but did not want to lose the structure that had already been there for so many years. I really do think that this is such an amazing feat. It just shows how much time and planning must have gone into this process to be so smooth and have no problems. The whole wall went in one piece, weighing in at 625 tons. They were able to do this by using four hydraulic rams. They had to do this in order to receive the historic tax credits. I am thoroughly impressed by the magnitude of this project.
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