Despite not yet being finished, a dedication ceremony was held on site.  Representatives of The Historic Masonic Preservation Foundation, the Town of Clifton Forge, the Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies and donors spoke of the influence the students' work will have on the community.  Over a hundred people attended the event which also featured catered food and live music.  We look forward to the first show in the completed amphitheatre on June 23.

Bob Schubert, the Dean of Research for the Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies

Socializing backstage

There were some new faces on site last Thursday for our first volunteer day.  Around twenty people showed up throughout the day to help rake dirt and lay sod for the overflow seating lawn.  We are very grateful for their support which allowed us to get a large portion of work out of the...

With the academic year in Blacksburg over, we moved into Clifton Forge last week to begin assembling the prefabricated portions we built over the past couple months.  We began by transporting all the preassembled modules by truck to the site.  Smitty's Welding has been operating a crane...

The interior of the Masonic Amphitheatre will be clad with four different natural metals.  We will be using a montage of aluminum, stainless steel, titanium and zinc panels of Alpolic.  The materials and drill bits to cut them were generously donated to the project.  We are...

Join us June 23rd for our grand opening of the Masonic Amphitheatre.  

As we continue to deck at ESL, contractors have poured foundations and constructed the retaining walls that define each terrace.  The decked forestage will be the first prefabricated part to be shipped to Clifton Forge early next week.  The rest of the pieces will make their way to the...

We are continuing to deck the endless frames we've spent the past weeks constructing.  We have finally gone vertical, erecting a wall for the sound/projection booth as well as cladding the gentle curve created by the trusses that are the structural support for the walls of the bandshell...

Our open house at ESL was a success.  Around 80 curious Clifton Forgers, friends, and faculty showed up to see our progress.  We gave tours, cooked a BBQ lunch, and had a steam bending demonstration. Visitors examine one of the benches A group of faculty hear about our project A student...

The white oak decking was delivered to the Environmental Systems Laboratory.  We have begun the tedious task of cladding the framing we constructed over the past few weeks.  Because of the density of the wood, each screw must be countersunk.  This involves using a fragile drill bit...

A contingent of our studio has been feverishly applying Hydro-Stop, a waterproofing coating, to the panels that will become the amphitheatre's roof.  Four coats of the paint-on substance are required for each panel.  Hydro-Stop generously donated all the material, a huge relief to our...

Come see our progress, get a tour of the facilities and socialize with the crew!  

We have begun to confront the problem of how to bend the white oak decking that clads the amphitheatre.  We have been in contact with artist Matthias Pliessnig, who is well known for his wood bending expertise.  At his direction we built a steam box using a ten foot section of six...

In the past week, our site has undergone a few notable changes.  We were given a generous discount by Hammond-Mitchell Co. to grade the site and dig holes for foundations.  A team of geotech engineers from Froehling & Robertson, Inc. donated their services and took soil borings from...

We have finally kicked off prefabrication at the Environmental Systems Laboratory not far from Virginia Tech's campus.  Our studio has split into three groups, each working on a portion of the construction.  The back of house group has begun framing the decked green room as well as the...

Having completed our construction documents and received our building permit, we began to lay out our plan for grading and foundations.   Using the world's loudest and slowest saw, we cut holes in the existing slab for foundations and trees. Using string to ensure we had the straightest...

After many months of late nights, missed meals, and conflicting copies we have finally conquered the construction documents.  This evening we sent them to Draper Aden and Associates for approval as well as to the building inspector in Clifton Forge to acquire the appropriate permits...

Yesterday evening we presented our design for The Masonic Amphitheatre to the Clifton Forge community.  Eighty-five people arrived at The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Heritage Center despite the rain to learn about our project and give us feedback.  We were pleased by their enthusiastic...

  We wrapped up our stay in Clifton Forge this morning with a few more hours of removing unwanted concrete and vegetation.  We left the site a very different place than when we arrived.  As we made our exit, we immersed ourselves in the local culture one last time, visiting the...

After a grueling day's work in the wind and rain, the design/buildLAB unwound at the Historic Jefferson Pools in Warm Springs.  While all members of the lab donned swimwear, there were two sketchy nude dudes and a cowboy.  Suffice it to say, we are using stock photography for this post...

After yesterday's cultural immersion adventure, we opted for a more tranquil option.  After we finished the day's work, we drove in a convoy to Roaring Run Furnace where we climbed, hiked and took in the scenic park.  On the return trip, we enjoyed a group meal at Cucci's, a family...

We had a successful day demolishing the concrete and clearing brush from the site.  While the primary central slab will remain to serve as the stage floor, the peripheral slabs are being removed to make way for the new park space.  

design/buildLAB is in Clifton Forge for the next three days to begin site demolition and to immerse ourselves in the culture.  Clifton Forge, a once bustling rail town, is home to the C&O Heritage Center (and this unusually small train).  Oh yeah, we did some some work too...

Cultural immersion at its best

Yesterday afternoon we presented our proposal to the board of the Masonic Theatre Preservation Foundation.  Using models, drawings, diagrams and material samples, we walked them through our program, thoroughly explaining each design decision.  They were very enthusiastic about what we...

Yesterday, a news team from WSLS 10 Roanoke came to cover our project. They filmed our studio working on the design and took professor and student perspectives of the process of the project. The story, which aired last night, can be viewed here.

We are back from our winter break and enthusiastically picking up where we left off.  Prior to break, we learned that The Alleghany Foundation has generously awarded us the grant that will enable us to build our project.   We are looking at a very busy and exciting semester...

Ana Jaramillo, a professional acoustic consultant and graduate candidate at Tech, joined us in Clifton Forge on Monday and took readings on sound levels on our site.  This will enable us to know how much is necessary to build to make the amphitheater acoustically sound.   

On Monday we had the opportunity to present our most recent iterations of our project to the community of Clifton Forge in Clifton Forge!  At this point in the process we had consolidated into groups and had begun to address the architecture of the project.  The presentation allowed for...

During our presentation to our clients, a group of fifth year thesis students participated in our discussion and documented each design. Later, they met to discuss  the ideas presented by each student and the concerns voiced by our clients. From this, they developed a list of specific...

Yesterday we presented individual propositions for a master plan to four of our clients from the board of the Masonic Theatre Preservation Foundation, as well as a panel of thesis students.  Feedback from this meeting will send us to the next phase of the design process as we begin to...

Recently, we had the opportunity to meet with two different acoustic consultants.  Via conference call with Josh Allen, of Theatre Consultants Collaborative (TCC), we discussed the acoustic importance of orientation on our site and how different facets of the landscape play a role in the...