SAN FRANCISCO, CA (April 30, 2003)—AUERBACH POLLOCK FRIEDLANDER, Performing Arts /Media Facilities Planning and Design, with offices in San Francisco, New York and Minneapolis is pleased to announce completion of work on the renovation of Bovard Auditorium at the University of Southern California.

AUERBACH POLLOCK FRIEDLANDER began work on the Bovard project with a Renovation Master Plan initiated in the late 1990s with SmithGroup, Project Architect and Kirkegaard & Associates, Acousticians. At the time, the project team was just completing renovation of the 300-seat Newman Recital Hall. USC and the Thornton School of Music looked toward the possibility of using Bovard, a significantly larger 1,300-seat venue, as an interim concert hall for the University orchestra while planning for a future performing arts center was underway.

Situated in USC’s historic administration building, Bovard has been a campus landmark for over 75 years, serving generations of students as a multi-purpose venue for guest speakers, university convocations and smaller touring attractions.

As a newly renovated facility, special attention has been paid to improving Bovard’s use for acoustic music and amplified events. Complete reconfiguration of the main floor level has significantly reduced the existing balcony overhang and recaptured this space as an entry lobby with audience vestibules – spaces that were noticeably missing in the original design of the hall. The theatre’s mechanical yard, located beyond the house left wall, has been enclosed and converted to a multi-story interior lobby, providing Bovard audiences with a formal gathering and event space.

In the hall itself, reconfiguration of the lower level now provides a fully accessible seating plan with increased intimacy and significantly improved sightlines. A complete forestage apron lift system has been incorporated into the stage design to allow increased stage depth for orchestral events. For large convocations and events requiring additional audience seating without a deep forestage extension, the lifts may be lowered, providing a front orchestra seating area.

Technical infrastructure for locally produced events and touring attractions has also been improved. Theatrical lighting positions have been reconfigured and augmented, with new overhead positions carefully integrated into ceiling coffers, balcony fronts and the vertical booms at the hall’s massive organ grilles.

A mechanized two-part forestage truss system accommodates both theatrical lighting systems and house audio clusters. A new glass-enclosed control suite provides accessible accommodation for technical staff in a visually-transparent, yet acoustically controlled technical environment.

The Bovard renovation, executed over a 9-month period between the end of USC’s spring 2002 semester and the start of the current 2003 semester, marks the restoration and revitalization of one of USC’s most memorable halls – a space that had all but fallen into disrepair. The newly refurbished hall will provide USC students and campus visitors with a revitalized sense of the campus’ historic center in the shadow of the nearby ‘Tommy Trojan’ statue.

The AUERBACH POLLOCK FRIEDLANDER team includes Steve Pollock, ASTC, Principal-in-Charge and Principal Designer; Mike McMackin, ASTC, Principal and Project Manager; and Greg Weddig, AV Systems Designer.

The project architect is SmithGroup, Los Angeles, California. Acoustical consulting is provided by Kirkegaard & Associates, Chicago, Illinois.

FACT SHEET: AUERBACH POLLOCK FRIEDLANDER

The renovation of Bovard Auditorium marks the completion of two renovation feasibility studies and a design project oriented toward redefining USC's historic public assembly and convocation hall. Throughout these efforts, AUERBACH POLLOCK FRIEDLANDER participated with SmithGroup, Project Architect and Kirkegaard & Associates, Acousticians - the team that had successfully renovated the small auditorium in USC's Allan Hancock Memorial Building into the Alfred Newman Recital Hall. With the stated goal of providing an interim home for the USC Thornton Orchestra, the renovation of Bovard is another milestone in the Flora Thornton School of Music's plan to renovate existing performance venues while the planning of a new USC Center for the Arts continues.

The renovation of this historic venue for concerts, lectures, media presentations and performances has both refreshed and modernized the 1,300-seat hall for today's audiences.

• Reconfiguration of the orchestra level has created fully-ADA compliant and accessible seating throughout the hall, in a shallower, more intimate environment with improved comfort and sightlines.
  
  

• At the front of the audience, a flexible stage extension system, utilizing a series of segmented stage lifts, provides ample stage space in front of the house curtain for lectures, as well as extended stage space for orchestra performances.
  
  
• At the rear of the house, reconfigured seating and a partially glass-enclosed control suite maintains the architecture of the underbalcony while allowing technicians running events the necessary proximity to hear and see well.
  
  
• Increased space at the rear of the hall, made possible by seating reconfiguration, provides Bovard audiences with lobby space that was never included in the original design. An upper level event lobby, located off the left side of the hall, exemplifies the audience-friendly attributes of the new renovation project.
  
  
• Replacement of existing theatre chairs with newly refurbished chairs with a more 'historic' look combines improved visual appeal with audience comfort.
  
  
• New theatrical lighting positions, including ceiling coves, balcony fronts, torm pipes and an over-apron lighting truss system provide improved physical infrastructure and ease of operation for technicians.
  
  
• The new over-apron truss system also accomodates the speaker clusters required for Bovard's sound reinforcement and audio playback systems.