SAN FRANCISCO, CA (August 15, 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 the Sunset Theater in Carmel, California.

After years of study, an exhaustive EIR, and then final design and construction, a new and reconceived Sunset Theater welcomes artists and audiences back to Carmel. For old friends of the Sunset Theater, the audience experience should evoke memories of the original. But greater comfort, improved sightlines, significant acoustical enhancements and a more gracious lobby experience will be noticeable, welcome changes. For performers who "played the Sunset Theater" before, everything that they once knew about the Theater has changed. Backstage and onstage at the new Sunset, the performer's experience has, in a word, been "redefined". Carmel is now home to a professional, first-class venue.

AUERBACH POLLOCK FRIEDLANDER collaborated with Architectural Resources Group to carefully weave the Theater's classic architecture into a traditional "working stage" with a new west stage wing. Significantly increased wingspace, fly volume and stage depth are artfully concealed by the architect's addition of new cross gables and pitched roofs. The pinched attic and manual ropeline system over the old stage has been replaced by a broad, traditionally-styled flyloft with a gridiron, ropeline and counterweight linesets that provide rigging space for orchestra shell ceilings, stage lights and theatrical scenery. A deep stage left wing provides a garage area for shell towers, musician storage and needed offstage space. Augmented lighting and audio systems complete this picture of a modern, leading edge stage facility.

Unlike the old Sunset Theater, staging is not limited to the confines of the proscenium arch. AUERBACH POLLOCK FRIEDLANDER designed a mechanized stage lift that extends the playing area for chamber music events out into the audience chamber, under a new, acoustically shaped canopy with permanent concert lighting. The lift also serves as an orchestra pit for music theatre, opera and dance. When the permanent stage is sufficient to accommodate events, chair wagons stored below the front audience seating area may be rolled onto the lift to increase seating capacity.

With these improvements, along with new dressing rooms, conductor's facilities, a green room and a rehearsal room, the Sunset Theater has become a venue for both artists and audiences. The City of Carmel and the Sunset Theater's audiences should enjoy these new facilities for years to come.

AUERBACH POLLOCK FRIEDLANDER Steve Pollock, ASTC, Principal-in-Charge and Principal Designer; Architectural Resources Group, project architect; and Shen Milsom & Wilke, Inc. + Paoletti, acoustics consultants.

FACT SHEET: AUERBACH POLLOCK FRIEDLANDER

Overview

AUERBACH POLLOCK FRIEDLANDER have collaborated with Architectural Resources Group and Shen Milsom & Wilke, Inc. + Paoletti acoustical consultants in a highly interactive design partnership that has guided the development of new audience, stage and support facilities in the renovation of the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea's historic Sunset Center Theater. The team was originally constituted to work with the City on the lengthy Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that was associated with an earlier renovation feasibility study for the Sunset. The relationships established with the City and the understanding of the Theater that resulted from this work brought about an unusual EIR outcome: the consultants were asked to continue as the project's design team. The resulting construction project has re-cast the former school auditorium and community arts center as a totally reconceived facility. The Sunset Theater will serve the Monterey Peninsula community for years to come as the home of Carmel's famous Bach Festival and as a venue for regional and national performing arts attractions.

The Sunset Theater - Existing Conditions

As a registered historic site in the State of California and on the National Register of Historic Places, renovation planning for the Sunset Theater was a complex process, reconciling existing building conditions with the requirements of a modern performing arts center. The original 733-seat audience chamber accommodated narrow rows of chairs on a shallow, sloping floor. Both orchestra level seating and the modest balcony occupancy offered minimally adequate sightlines. Although the Sunset Theater was home to the Monterey Symphony and Carmel's annual Bach Festival, the hall's small 24' wide proscenium opening and its low, 22' high bowed arch were only adequate for the smallest music, drama and dance events.

The small proscenium aperture was a primary limiting factor for dance and music presentations. With barely sufficient staging area and wingspace to accommodate modern dance, ballet was out of the question.

And though it was possible to accommodate chamber orchestras on stage, the limited area of the opening between the stage and audience created a sound barrier that often forced music events to be staged on temporary platforming in front of the arch.

Even under these presentation conditions, the steeply pitched Sunset Theater roof, supported by a series of deep gothic arches within the auditorium, obstructed acoustical paths and shadowed sidewalls and ceiling surfaces. The result was an uneven acoustical environment with "hot spots" and "holes". The opportunity for lateral reflections and a more "diffuse" sound from the stage was simply impossible under the existing Theater's conditions.

Onstage, things were similarly inhibited. Without a traditional fly loft, rigging under the pitched roof was accomplished with a rope and sandbag system that taxed the ingenuity of house technicians and brokered an attitude of "compromise" by all artists booked into this difficult and limited performance environment.

The Mandate to Renovate

Despite these shortcomings, the heritage of the Sunset Theater and its importance to the community all but assured that renovation would happen. The outcome would be guided by planning for superior acoustics, improved sightlines, greater comfort and front of house amenities. The new Sunset Theater would provide first-class accommodations for audiences and performers.

A series of unusual planning decisions developed during the EIR resulted in design directions that were sympathetic to the historic structure, yet allowed much of the "renovated" building to be razed and rebuilt.

Preserving Form while Improving Function

To the typical passerby on San Carlos Street, the residential thoroughfare that fronts the Sunset Center, it was important to minimize the impact of any theatre renovation. Together, the design team strategized numerous options to preserve the look and spirit of the Sunset Theater, while providing solutions using the latest materials and systems to fool the eye, but not the ear. New infrastructure was carefully integrated with architecture. The result was a holistic approach to a completely modern version of the old Sunset Theater space.

As a starting point from the EIR, the original profile of the steeply pitched roof had to be maintained. The "historic" arches within the auditorium would remain, but were stripped of all plaster and lath, revealing riveted bridge trusses from the original 1920s building. Perforated metal cladding would allow the trusses to retain their identity, while offering the degree of acoustical transparency mandated by the acoustician.

Front lighting positions were introduced in a comprehensive single tilted "wishbone" catwalk that mimics the arches in a rising curved stair that follows the steeply pitched roofline. Theatrical lighting circuits are buried out of audience sight in the toe-rail fascia. Graceful curved railings for hanging lighting fixtures arc away from the catwalk handrails in this unusual sculptural technical element.

The original proscenium wall was transformed, also taking a design cue from the shape and configuration of the perforated metal arches and literally soars to the peak of the audience chamber roof. The existing arch, which limited sound and staging capabilities, was replaced by a wider 42' gothic opening. The entire proscenium was built as a sound transparent wall, allowing musicians within the new orchestra enclosure greater presence in the room. For music performances, the constraints of the confining proscenium wall are removed under performance lighting conditions. With the stage brightly illuminated, the scrim-like wall "disappears", revealing multiple layers of orchestra shell walls, lights and acoustical reflectors. The effect is simply stunning.

For dance and theatre events, a main drapery and a tall main valance create a more traditional proscenium that is both opaque and rectilinear, maximizing wingspace and overhead volume for flown scenery and lighting.

The design team also had a mandate to increase the acoustical volume of the hall and to improve audience viewing conditions. Re-grading the site and dropping the stage level added volume to the room, while creating a steeper audience environment at a 1:8 slope improved viewing angles for all audience members. The balcony, re-raked and augmented with boxes at the front corners also has excellent vertical sightlines that extend well into the orchestra pit – a feature that replaces the old Theater's portable platform system, saving hours of labor with the simple push of a button at the onstage production control panel.

The Sunset Theater Systems

The fixed "historic" envelope of the hall and the profile of the Sunset Theater from the neighboring community belie the most significant change - the addition of a flyloft and gridiron over the stage. As Theatre Consultant, AUERBACH POLLOCK FRIEDLANDER worked closely with Architectural Resources Group, marrying numerous stage-related functional issues with the Sunset Center's architectural vernacular with the specific goal of meeting the City's directive to maintain zoning height limitations and to avoid a "box like" fly tower under all circumstances.

The complex custom counterweight rigging system, fly galleries and loading platforms in the new Sunset Theater offer traditional rigging utility, despite the unique accommodations required by tilted mansard walls and overhead gables. A freight lift from basement level offers access to the upper fly. Riggers may ascend to the gridiron by a short spiral stair, or haul loads at the lift bay to the grid by chain hoist. Three orchestra shell ceilings store high above the stage on counterweight linesets and may be quickly flown into position by stagehands setting up a music event. For the first time, the Sunset Theater has a full "working stage". Yet from the outside, the structure over the stage is elegantly concealed, integrated into a series of cross-gables and dormers. All who have seen it agree - the new Sunset Theater fly tower is one of Carmel's best-kept secrets.

Architecture and systems within the new Sunset Theater are not only physical - they are electronic as well. The Theater's variable acoustics system relies on an assisted-resonance system designed by the acoustician, in addition to the motorized Roman shade banners and traveler draperies designed by AUERBACH POLLOCK FRIEDLANDER to provide variable absorption at critical acoustical boundaries. A full complement of sophisticated systems for lighting, audio and assistive listening round out technical facilities that are consistent with the most up-to-date regional performing arts centers.

The Sunset Theater opens on July 19, 2003 with the inaugural concert of this year's Bach Festival, marking the welcomed return of Bach to Carmel after the long-awaited renovation and construction period. A formal gala opening season is slated for Fall 2003.