Refurbished Bezanson to reopen soon

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

The entrance to a new, enclosed lobby for Bezanson Recitial Hall where an open walkway used to be. The overhang features lighting that illuminates the hall's name, as well as the entrance beneath it. (Stan Sherer photo)

hat started as a make-up job for Bezanson Recital Hall in 1995 has since become a full-fledged face-lift, which will culminate in an official reopening of the hall and its new lobby April 13. Over the last 14 months, the roughly 200-seat space has been under the knife to bring it up to code, make it handicapped accessible, improve its acoustics, modernize its equipment, provide it with a lobby, and beautify its features.

     "It had a warm sound but a miniscule lobby," said Christopher Thornley, director of admissions and of facilities in Music and Dance. "About 35 people could fit into the lobby. Everyone else had to stand outside, sometimes when it was very cold."

     The prescription for the enclosed lobby and the new maple and chrome look was written over time, evolving through studies, fundraising, research, and developing tastes.

     After a 1995 gift from Thomas Bezanson, son of Philip Bezanson, for whom the space was named, the department conducted an architectural feasibility study. The following year, Amherst resident and music lover Dorothy Grannis donated funds for the purchase of a new Steinway grand piano for the recital hall.

     "Having this magnificent piano housed in such a wanting environment," prompted the department to move forward with plans to refurbish the space, according to Marilyn Massler Kushick, the department's director of advancement. The department decided the concrete box with broken seating, graffiti and worn carpeting was an inadequate home for such a fine instrument, so in the fall of 1997, Music and Dance began to advertise the need for renovation funds in its monthly calendar.

     The following January, Chancellor David K. Scott announced that if the department could raise $150,000 by the beginning of the next fiscal year, he would match it with funds from his office and the University. The department succeeded, and Facilities Planning hired an architect to make an initial study. By the time the effort was underway in spring 2002, the project had become a full-blown renovation with an expanded lobby, handicapped access, and a computerized lighting system. The final price tag is $1.17 million, according to project manager Jeffrey Quackenbush, a senior architect in Facilities Planning.

     Previously, the recital hall lacked identifying signage other than a small painted marker by the road. The entrance to the hall is now marked with a lighted sign above the door to the lobby that says, "BEZANSON."

     The new Falcetti Music Lobby, which is named for a family that contributed to the renovation, was created by enclosing the walkway between the hall and Music and Dance offices. It retains one visible concrete wall on the north side because, Thornley said, architect Peter Turowski "did not want to try to deny what this building was." Names of donors will be memorialized on chrome and hung on the north wall, Thornley said.

     The rest of the lobby is largely maple and textured chrome, with a small dark-salmon curved formica counter, which can be used as a box office or reception table.

     "We didn't have an adequate ticket counter," Thornley said. "Now we have phone jacks, and we're hoping to get an ethernet connection that will allow a computer here to talk to the one in the Fine Arts Center Box Office."

     Chrome-trimmed "porthole" windows are featured in the sets of doors that lead from the lobby into an entrance room on each side of the hall. Inside new computer-run lighting illuminates a new maple panel, about half the width of the stage and centered on it, which moves back and forth to adjust the size of the performance space. Two rolling maple cabinets hold stage chairs and music stands. The stage itself is new and solid maple.

     "The old lighting was very much in your face," Thornley said. "The new lighting is pre-programmed to highlight different areas. We now have access to a backstage storage area from the stage and a new sound system, too."

     Because the room is used as a classroom, it has ethernet connections on stage and a projection screen for instructors, Thornley said.

     The new hall trades approximately 20 seats for ADA compliance and now has a larger access row across the back with seating for four wheelchairs.

     The old seating has been repaired and refurbished. The metal frames are now butterscotch-colored with plush persimmon upholstery, the wooden arm rests are newly refinished. Carpeting has been restricted to the aisles. The new floor covering is plush and multi-colored. Carpeting beneath the seats was removed to improve acoustics and make maintenance easier, Thornley said, and the concrete beneath the seats has been painted a dusty rose.

     "A lot of the new seating available was plastic and clearly designed to be disposable," he said, explaining why the department chose to refurbish its old seats. "These seats had already lasted 30 years."

     The hall's old piano has been refurbished, too, for use during rehearsals and classes. The two-manual and pedal tracker-action Oberlinger pipe organ, which had been housed in Bezanson prior to the renovation and "is used very occasionally in recital situations," was moved to Room 36 in the Fine Arts Center to create more space on the recital hall stage.

     The recital hall officially opens April 13 with a performance and reception for donors, but a tight performance schedule necessitates using it as soon as the state approves the space, which Thornley anticipates will happen during spring break.