“It’s almost go-time for the most complex piece of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s conversion of the historic Grand Warner Theatre into a music hall,” writes Jeramey Jannene in Friday’s (8/9) Urban Milwaukee. “Starting Tuesday morning, a highly specialized crew … will begin inching the 625-ton rear theater wall into what used to be N. 2nd St. When complete the wall will have moved 35 feet east…. The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra is relying on over $16 million in federal and state historic preservation credits to fund the $89 million project…. The National Park Service, which controls the federal credits, determined that … the wall must be moved as one piece…. Once the wall is relocated plenty of work remains, including … building a new structure to link the wall back with the theater and installing new theater seats. A glass lobby structure will be constructed…. A rear expansion of the theater … is also underway…. The orchestra hopes to begin performing in the hall in September 2020. It is moving to the redeveloped theater as part of an effort to improve the fiscal sustainability of the organization by controlling its own schedule, deriving additional rental revenue and establishing an endowment.”
Posted August 12, 2019
