A New Project

I was asked by my boss to assist him and a few selected others to redesign the Founders Room in the Performing Arts Center.  The 16 year old furniture had been showing it's age and the room needed an update.  It was a task that I was excited to take on.

The Old Founders Room

The Founders Room has been used for the Founders of the Performing Arts Center as well as a select group of people from the CalPoly campus and the City of San Luis Obispo.  It is used as a dining area, a board room and other meetings with the President's Office or Deans of the Colleges.

The first order of business was to get a team together.  Ron Reiger, Managing Director of the PAC worked with Heather Cochrane from the Foundation of the Performing Arts Center (FPAC) along with a representative of the President's Office, Kim Uyttewaal and me.  The next step was to bring in a designer or two.  Enter into the equation, Jackie Starr and Noreen Martin.

The team got together a number of times to choose color palettes, styles of furniture, coverings, draperies and carpeting.  There were a few musts.  FPAC wanted to make the warm warmer and more modern.  The lighting in the room had always been too bright, and because of the fluorescent cove lighting that could not dim, we decided to switch to an LED system which offered flexibility in color and brightness.  We also wanted to make the room darker for meetings, so we discussed adding blackout drapes to the windows.

 We had wanted to finish this project by December for the annual FPAC Holiday Party, but due to back orders of fabrics, we had to postpone for the new year.  The work ended up being done in late February, early March, with a Grand Re-opening of March 9, 2012.

I had to schedule the outside contractors, after we got the go ahead from CalPoly project personnel.  Carpet layer and drapery hanger were scheduled two weeks before opening.  The schedule for the PAC was fairly light, but we still had to keep the room closed for a few shows.  In order to keep the mystique up of what we were doing, I blocked the windows with paper and put up caution tape.

Old carpet removed

Measuring out the carpet in the Main Lobby

Looking for any old bumps

Ron overseeing the work

Laying the carpet

More goop - more carpet

Majority of the carpet done

Finishing touches

One more edging to be done

Draperies laid out, ready for install

New bar delivered waiting to be moved into place

Drapes getting ready to be hung

Tools to hang the drapes

Installing the 60" TV monitor

One section complete

Time to hang the next

Drapes hung on Western windows

Furniture delivered

Starting to place the furinture

Bistro Tables delivered

Lots of furniture

The new benches and bistros

Monitor installed and furniture placed

A new Founders Room

Tie backs installed and getting ready for opening

The opening was set for March 9th in conjunction with a Hawaiian Masters program at Spanos Theater.  FPAC decided on a luau theme.  Leis, grass skirts, surf boards and tiki torches were brought in and out of the PAC.  A guest list of over 40 people and live ukulele music.

Photo op area

Tiki torches to welcome the guests

The Ukes

Waiting for the night to start with a new Founders Room

Guests for the evening

and more guests

A few of our original Founders

Ron & Heather welcoming the guests

Ron & I surfing

Heather and Dave taking a photo op

The evening was a great success.  As I stated earlier, I really loved the project.  I was glad the opening was finally here and "complete!"  It took a lot of time, energy and thought to make it a reality.  The next time you are in SLO, come by and take a look.  If you already here, come by and make a "big" donation to FPAC and you can visit the Founders Room whenever you come to a show at the PAC!