Look, we found an old van under the mainstage! (not really). At this point, we can really examine the entire building to look for fun surprises.
The floor in the Bailiwick is remarkably uneven. We had noticed an decided slope in the hallway to the back of the building. Once we pulled out the walls, we could see that the floor was far more uneven than we had anticipated. The concrete guys mapped out a grid using cool little laser devices to check elevations. As it turns out, the floor has a variance of over 7 1/2" from its lowest to its highest point. But it's not an even grade, oh no. The floor bucks and twists, with whole portions raised above the grade, like this picture which is where the entrance to the mainstage used to be.
Conceivably, we could break up the concrete and repour the floor, or we can give up those 7 1/2" and raise the entire base. Our GC believes that the latter will be a small incremental cost, and one he will absorb as part of his bid, so hey--this is not only cheaper, but it solves another problem...
Yes, the alley is higher than the floor. Why do we care? One word: Rain. If we leave this unaddressed, water will pour into theatres 2 and 3 underneath the door every time it rains. Fortunately, by raising the floor and just building in slight rakes for wheelchair access in each entry alcove, we will have our theater safely above street level which should prevent the random flooding the old space was prone to.
When Rick (the architect) initially measured the building, he had to make a few assumptions because of lack of access to parts of the buliding filled with debris. One of these assumptions caused us to mis-draft the fire exit door on the back of the building. The existing door will be bisected by the wall separating Theater 2 from the Theater 3 dressing room. Fortunately, this is an optional door. We already had to add additional fire doors for the two spaces on the back of the buliding so we can just brick it in. I don't know how that impacts the plans we put in with the city, but Rick is looking into it.
We uncovered a catchbasin in the center of the building covered by concrete while the plumber was tracing pipes to prevent accidents when we sink the wall supports in. This is the original catchbasin whose purpose is to help filter out silt from the roof drainage. What we discovered was that the existing plumbing lines for the bathrooms run into this catchbasin, which goes a long way to explaining the occasionally rich odors floating up from the restrooms. The upshot is that we are going to have to lay new pipes to the front of the building, about 35 feet. This does add to my cost, so we'll see next week what the incremental cost is.
But, the most exciting news has been the trusses. In November, we had a structural engineer in to look at the existing trusses. Trusses are exciting things, as it turns out. They simultaneously keep the the walls and roof from collapsing. Plus they look cool. They look so cool, in fact, that the city won't let you build buildings with them anymore.
Actually, the city frowns on buildings engineered this way because it's hard to keep the trusses in good repair with the heavy snowfalls here in Chicago and the propensity of tenants to hang things on the trusses like light grids (the old tenant, not us). What this has done is start to bow the trusses slightly, and partially split one of them on the side. Apparently, one dramatic thing about trusses is that they are rarely overengineered for the weight of the roof. Therefore, if one truss collapes, the entire building collapses. Or so I'm told. When we first looked at the truss, one of the engineers sort of fled the building, but hey--he was an electrical engineer. The structural engineers were reassuringly bored and have provided a solution to keep us all from sudden, crushy death.
The bowing can be corrected by essentially building supports into the walls that stretch a metal cable that can be tightened annually to keep the walls supported, and the truss that's starting to give can be repaired. These repairs have been designed and we are currently looking in to bids to fix them. Fortunately, as this work will cost over $20,000, this is marked in the lease as one of the landlord's responsibilities. The Stameloses have been great supporters of this project, and the trusses should be fixed soon. But, there is a point where we may have to stop work to allow for truss repair to be completed. I'm waiting to see if there is an additional delay there.
Here's our progress so far:
- Schedule - 1 day behind
- Budget - $0 over, but could be several thousand dollars once we get the plumbing costs.
This coming week they will be cutting the concrete slab to do the pour and put in the fittings. It's looking awfully construction-y there!
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