Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1936)

PLANNING THE THEATRE A SERVICE DEPARTMENT DEALING WITH ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN AND MATERIALS, DECORATION AND FURNISHINGS ANSWERS TO INQUIRIES: One of the principal functions of this department is to answer inquiries pertaining to preliminary considerations in the planning of a new theatre or the remodeling of an existing one. All questions receive the personal attention of Peter M. Hulsken, A.I. A., contributing editor of this department and a practicing architect who long has specialized in theatre design. He will be glad to offer advice, suggestions and criticism. Working plans, however, cannot be supplied. All communications intended for this department should be addressed to Better Theatres, Rockefeller Center, New York. In publishing replies, only initials are used for identification. THE QUESTION; I have a theatre room located upstairs. This was built about 30 years ago of brick — plastered and wood floor. The room is 56 feet wide by 100 feet long, auditorium ceiling 22 feet high at stage arch, and about 20 feet at back of room. Three banks of seats, ten seats in each bank, eighteen rows. Back of auditorium to stage opening, about 70 feet. Stage opening, 32 feet wide by about 16 feet high. Screen sets back about 12 feet. Sound horns in tower dressing rooms under stage. Have a big cooling fan in center dressing room with air ducts opening each side of stage into auditorium. I am at present just using outside air for cooling. My method of heating is very poor — two stoves in back of auditorium, a floor heater in front in one corner. How can I make a combination heating and cooling system? Could I use my cooling fan to advantage? Approximately what would a 500-seat house cost to build on the ground floor, using cinder blocks and the cheapest kind of construction— building alone, including heating and cooling, additional for equipment. Lot 40 feet wide, 160 feet long, on corner. — J. G. S. THE ANSWER: according to your inquiry, I understand that no heating plant is provided for in your theatre. If you want to make a combination heating and ventilating system, it will be necessary to install a boiler to provide steam for the heating coils. If natural or artificial gas is obtainable in your community at a low rate, your problem could be easily solved, as combination units are obtainable so that no piping except for gas is necessary. The most efficient way to place the heating and ventilating apparatus would be to build fan rooms on each side of the proscenium arch in the form of flare walls. These fan rooms should be about 8 feet above the floor and should be of fireproof construction. The fresh air is taken from the outside, and the fans blow the air through the heating coils into the auditorium. Vent ducts should be provided to exhaust the foul air. For cooling, air washers could be installed. The minimum cost of a 500-seat theatre with one floor, using the most inexpensive materials for construction, and exclusive of any equipment, would be $20,000. • THE QUESTION: I am planning to buy a building which is 36 feet by 100 feet. It faces the east, and on the north half of the building is a room which is now used for a theatre. On the south half of the building is a room now occupied by a barber shop. In the center, dividing the theatre and the barber shop is a stairway leading to the second story and apartments. Now what I should like to do is tear out the stairway and move it over to the extreme south of the building, throwing the rest of the barber shop into the theatre. Allowing 6 feet for the stairway and walls I would have 30 feet of front left. The new building would be 30 by 100 feet. I would appreciate your telling me how to arrange the theatre to these specifications and how many seats it would have. I should like to know how to plan the booth and how high the ceiling should be, what slant to the floor, how to arrange the seats, and where to put lounge rooms and furnace room. Would I have to put some kind of a beam in where I tear out the stairway, or not? If so what kind of a beam would you suggest. Please tell me about what you think this sort of a job would cost. I am in a small town of 1,800, but we want to have a nice theatre within our means. — W. W. R. THE ANSWER: after looking over your sketch, I find that the plan will work out quite satisfactorily. The only item I am afraid of is the present stairhall, which may divide the building into two separate parts, with the floor joists supported by the stairhall walls. If this is the case, the entire upper floor construction will have The new foyer-lounge of Loew's Sfate theatre in Boston, recently remodeled. Called the Audubon room, the upper part of the walls are decorated with murals copied from the John James Audubon collection in the James Pierpont Morgan library, while lithographs of birds are hung about the wainscot. 38 Better Theatres