Wisconsin Builder | Top Projects of 2002

Center Stage

PAC stretches contractors to limits

Fox Cities Performing Arts Center Inc. Appleton

By Jeremy Harrell

The Fox Cities Performing Arts Center stage is spotless and its acoustics are unmatched, but the shining surface is a product of a lot of sweat and invention.

"There wasn't one standard way of doing a thing," said Bruce Baseman, project manager for subcontractor Town & Country Electric, Appleton.

The $45 million project was the culmination of Appleton's 20-year determination to land a top-flight performing arts space downtown, said Paul Coenen, project principal with construction manager Oscar J. Boldt Construction, a division of The Boldt Co., Appleton. After years of city negotiation and planning, Aid Association for Lutherans in the late 1990s anchored the necessary investment with a $10 million stipend, and the pieces — 2,500 donors in all — quickly fell into place, he said.

So quickly, in fact, that the project owner scheduled an opening-night performance in 2002 even before it set a date for groundbreaking. Boldt, designers with Zeidler Grinnell Partnership Architects, Tampa, Fla., and a team of subcontractors had their work cut out for them.

"It's the fastest any building like this has been delivered," Coenen said. "It was truly a team exercise. We had to trust people to get things done on time."

The fast-paced schedule meant plans were delivered on a just-in-time basis. Often, Boldt and its subcontractors would receive their day's instructions over the phone the same morning, said John Kappell, project supervisor for Town & Country.

But with the required speed came a new level of care to details, said Christopher Mallon, business development manager for River Valley Testing Corp., Madison, which performed materials testing and coordinated site-remediation work.

"It made it harder in that we didn't have to play by the standard rules," he said. "Environmental cleanups like this usually take a year. We had four months."

Project Name: Fox Cities Performing Arts Center
Location: Appleton
Submitting Companies: The Boldt Co., Appleton; Town & Country Electric, Appleton; Klein-Dickert Co. Inc., Green Bay; River Valley Testing Corp., Madison
General Contractor/Construction Manager: Oscar J. Boldt Construction, a division of The Boldt Co., Appleton
Architect: Zeidler Grinnell Partnership Architects, West Palm Beach, Fla.
Engineer: Walter P. Moore & Associates Inc., Tampa, Fla. (Structural), and BR+A Consulting Engineers Inc., Orlando, Fla. (Mechanical)
Owner: Fox Cities Performing Arts Center Inc., Appleton
Project Cost: $45 million
Start Date: October 2000
Completion Date: November 2002

Adjusting to change

Remarkably, in a building this size, with the floor shifting practically daily under their feet, the contractors displayed an ingenuity that helped them meet deadline without sacrificing quality. Town & Country, for instance, invented several electrical devices for the project and reworked others to fit the job's needs, and all have earned recognition from theater companies and engineers nationwide.

Boldt, meanwhile, carried out several complex concrete pours and, with the guidance of acoustical specialists at Artec Consultants Inc., New York, oversaw the construction of a space that completely eliminates outside noise, light and vibration. This was especially critical since an active train track runs outside one wall of the arts center, and its downtown location subjects it to ambulance sirens and other urban distractions.

Even the painting job was atypical. Gary Rucker, project manager with Klein-Dickert North Paint Division, Green Bay, said his crew had to fit an 80-foot lift through a door that gave half-an-inch clearance on each side and then apply 3,000 gallons of paint, some to a ceiling that rose 90 feet above grade.

It was a labor of love for all and perhaps particularly for Boldt, which helped a member of the company's founding family realize a childhood dream of seeing a performing arts center downtown, Coenen said.

"(Oscar Boldt) was probably on site more than I was," he said. "We absorbed any additional costs as a donation from the company."

| Editor's Note | Top Projects | Main |
| Special Sections Main | DailyReporter.com |