Ren­o­va­tion: Oc­to­rium be­ing ren­o­vated for use by mul­ti­ple de­part­ments next se­mes­ter

The Oc­to­rium in Mid­dle­ton Hall of Sci­ence is cur­rently be­ing ren­o­vated. Miriam Wertz, as­sis­tant di­rec­tor of Phys­i­cal Plant, said that much of the work is be­ing done by the main­te­nance staff and only the floor­ing and the in­stal­la­tion of the chairs is be­ing done by out­sourced work­ers.

How­ever, ac­cord­ing to Butch Breedlove, di­rec­tor of Phys­i­cal Plant, they have had to bring in a few other peo­ple to sign off on some lo­gis­tics. An en­gi­neer had to sign off on tear­ing down the back wall to pro­vide more stage space, and the In­di­ana De­part­ment of Air Qual­ity had to sign off dur­ing the process of re­do­ing the floor and the ceil­ing be­cause of the in­su­la­tion ma­te­r­ial.

Main­te­nance is cur­rently work­ing on paint­ing the ceil­ing and the walls.

“Then we will start hang­ing light fix­tures,” Breedlove said. “In the midst of that, the floor­ing guys are com­ing in late next week…Then af­ter that, the car­pet peo­ple will be in. Then the very last thing will be the chairs.”

 

During the construction of the structure, a new sound booth was constructed in the back corner of the Octorium, out of the way from the entrance. “Before, you walked in the back doors and were right there next to the production booth,” Kyle Inman, director of audio services, said. “It will be nice to have it as its own space now." On the sound aspect, Inman talked about how they are getting new speakers for the Octorium. “It just fits the space that we are actually trying to hit with sound,” he said, “Instead of hitting the side walls and ceiling quite as much as we were.” In addition to the sound, Inman added, the renovation will be “giving a cleaner looking space.” The lighting will also be much different. “They are very bright,” Inman said, “So in this whole place I think there is only going to be five lights.” The five brighter lights will be for classroom use. There will be softer and more decorative lights for events like Vespers and theater performances. “There's such a big scope of what it has to do,” Derrick Null, technical director of the Everest Rohrer (ER) Chapel/Fine Arts Center – Auditorium, said. “It makes it difficult in some sense.” Null is also a part of the renovation team. Because of the many different uses, multiple different features, such as the lighting, must be built in to accommodate the different departments that will use the Octorium. Null talked about one of the extra features that was added to accommodate the theatre performances that will take place there. “[The theater Department] was stuck with how the lights were,” Null said, “But now, since the ceiling has been ripped out, we are adding extra hanging positions, so they can bring some of their equipment from the ER that they own over to the Octorium to make it an even better experience for them. They can do a lot more. Make the shows look a little bit smoother. There is more space [on stage]; the back wall is being ripped out.” Dry erase boards will be placed in the front to accommodate lectures that take place in the Octorium and will be hidden behind the curtains for other events. A level handicap section has also been added to accommodate people with those needs. “There will be places for wheelchairs and it will have one companion chair,” Breedlove said. “All these different aspects and uses of the Octorium will be improved upon with this renovation,” Null said. According to Wertz, all the renovation must be done by the end of May because there is a conference coming in at the end of May and then a dedication is in June.