Entry No. 4
Late in 2019, The War Memorial embarked on a journey to build a more inspired future. With our construction project officially underway, we remain committed to building a permanent home for art, culture, and the humanities right here in Grosse Pointe.
Each month, we’ll provide a brief snapshot of where our project stands: a behind-the-scenes look at the people, ideas, and processes driving this vision. We look forward to keeping our community, stakeholders, supporters, and professional staff apprised of our progress: a touchpoint for all involved to see the creation of our new space, start to finish.
It has been a few months since we last shared a construction update, but things have been very busy here at the site of the future Fred M. Alger Center for Arts, Culture, and Humanities. One of the big things our team has been dealing with these past few weeks is the flooding of our beloved Patriot Theater. The theater suffered greatly from the storm, with water flooding our entire orchestra pit and destroying our stage and seats. Within days of the storm, we realized the damage was irreversible. Inevitably, the theater had to be completely gutted to prepare for restoration and the massive renovations that will allow us to open our doors and take the stage once again. While a devastating loss, our staff remains committed to our mission to serve and uplift our community. We look forward to the future and a new robust lineup of world-class performers, thought-provoking lectures, and masterful films. However, this has not stopped our construction project from moving forward!
As we shared in our last post, the precast for our building was complete and on its way to Michigan from Kentucky! If you’ve driven by our site recently, you may have noticed the crane, and a handful of workers, working diligently to install the pre-cast and begin forming the structure of our new space. We chatted with Wesley Lawerence, our Owner’s Representative, who gave us a bit of insight into what pre-cast is, how it is installed, and just what we can expect over the next few months. Check out what he shared below!
What is pre-cast?
Pre-cast or cast stone is essentially highly refined precast building stone made using a mix of both coarse and fine aggregates, including natural sands, quartz, granite, limestone, marble, Portland cement, mineral oxide coloring pigments, and calcite. Once the mixture is ready, it’s pushed into sturdy molds to give it a dense texture that resembles that of natural cut stone. It can be cast in a wide range of colors and stone finishes, such as marble, travertine, slate, bluestone, limestone, granite, and brownstone. Cast stone can even work as a substitute for bricks too. Unlike some materials, weathering tends to improve the appearance of cast stone over time, helping it appear more natural.
Where is our pre-cast from?
Gates is the name of the company. The pre-cast was fabricated in their facility located in Winchester, KY.
How is pre-cast installed?
The installation requires the use of cranes, rigging, welding, and placement using a crane to lift and set the pieces. This is a complicated process. Multiple pieces of cast stone will be installed for the project.
So, just how long does this process take?
The new colonnades alone will take five weeks to complete.
Tell us a bit about the glass that will be installed? That comes next!
The glass that will be used for the new addition is being sourced (shipped) from Spain. It is energy efficient and bird-friendly. This means that there is a filament placed in the layers of the glass that will allow birds to see it to prevent them from flying into the building.
Where do we go from here?
Multiple activities will continue along with the installation of the precast. This will include infill of the old pre-function stairwell that leads to the theater lobby, pouring of the concrete foundation for the reflection and community rooms, and wall framing of the new kitchen and ballroom.
As always, we like to keep things visual. Below you’ll find a collection of images from our current site, as well as a few videos that show just how much work we’ve accomplished these past few months. Things look different, but we are eager to welcome you to our new facility in 2022.
