Burlington moves forward with Greyhound Performing Arts Center: seating, stagecraft and schedule locked into construction documents

The Burlington Community School District on June 30 reviewed final design details for the Aldo Performing Arts Center — to be branded the Greyhound Performing Arts Center — and advanced the project into the construction documents phase with a schedule that targets bidding this fall.

Architect/designer presenting the plans said the project is moving from design development into construction documents "so that we can really work on producing the information that the construction team is going to need for being able to build this." The board and design team reviewed seating, stage and backstage arrangements, exterior cladding, access and schedule.

The project keeps the existing auditorium footprint for audience circulation but builds a new stage box and adjacent stagecraft area at the back of the building. The design team described a 40-foot stage opening, a stage roughly 2½ feet elevated above the front row, and seating distributed across a lower tier (about a 30-inch drop toward the stage) and a steeper upper tier. Based on current seat layouts, the presenter said the auditorium will hold about 719 seats — "slightly over 700" compared with earlier estimates below 700. Seat widths will vary between 21 and 24 inches to allow row…