The Garde Arts Center
The Garde Theatre in the Garde Arts Center in New London, CT is a Nationally Recognized historic theater named for Walter Garde, a local businessman who opened the theater in 1926 on land purchased from a local “newspaper magnate” who wanted the development of the land to be used “for the good of New London.” Originally opened for Vaudeville acts typical of their popularity in the 1920s, the Garde was created with some unique features – like a Moroccan themed décor – as well as some highly desirable ones – like eight dressing rooms and an orchestra pit large enough to hold 26 musicians.
A restoration project as part of New London’s efforts to revitalize its downtown area in the 80s brought the theater back into regular operation, and a large renewal project started in 2021 made improvements to the original architecture in the lobbies, entrances backstage, support facilities, and more. As part of those upgrades, the Garde Theatre needed to update its lighting infrastructure for both the stage and house lights. PORT was asked to bid on the work and it turned out to be one of our most interesting AND challenging projects.
Respecting the Architecture
When we attended the walk-through with the Garde team and the other bidders, we were immediately struck by one particular challenge being highlighted for us – a beautiful domed ceiling structure which at the time was assumed would need to be cut open in order to bring in the new rigging that was being asked for as part of the upgrades. No one had any enthusiasm for this part of the job, as no one likes the idea of intentionally cutting up part of a beautiful historical architectural detail that itself was only recently restored. Unfortunately, that is often unavoidable when bringing modern technology and equipment into something originally built to handle much less ambitious lighting requirements.
Fortunately, however, be it from our team’s innate curiosity, one of our team members had wandered away from the group and returned to where he had previously noticed a large panel on a side wall. Upon further inspection, it revealed itself to be an old, out-of-use ventilation shaft that connected directly to the outside of the building. This sparked an idea for our team that led us to a solution that would ultimately result in PORT getting the contract for the upgrades. But while the alternative to cutting open the dome was far preferable, we knew our solution would still require a lot of careful planning and some very challenging hands-on work on the weekend it needed to get done.
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