Renovations to the Jubilee Auditorium

[Mr. Ski]

So for the last 8 months or so as I've driven past the Jubilee Auditorium every day on the way to and from work I've have seen that there's construction going on (lots of scafolding, cranes, iron work, etc.) and have wondered what they were doing...

Today my curiosity got the better of me and I found these pictures after a few mintues of searching... wow...

An Overview

Calgary & Edmonton Construction Photos

Start with the September pictures and work your way through. Lots of cool stuff. Should be great for concerts and other events after it's finished. Far too many times in the past I had to do the side-to-side-seat-shuffle all night long to see past the person in front of me!

[octothorp]

Yeah, it looks great! My fiancee does work for the Calgary Opera and she was showing me some of the computer renderings earlier today. It's too bad they won't have the Betty Mitchell theatre in the basement anymore (although Theatre Junction scored a great space downtown). Hopefully the auditorium will be used more once they're finished the construction. With only two production companies using it through the year plus a handful of concerts, it really was underutilized. And not to seem too pretentious, but the first opera of the season next year will be Turandot, which is my favorite! I'm looking forward to getting down there on opening night and checking out the new space!

[Mr. Ski]

Originally posted by octothorp@Apr 14 2005, 09:50 PM
With only two production companies using it through the year plus a handful of concerts, it really was underutilized.

I totally agree with you. Even in it's old configeration with terrible sight-lines and it's strange red seats it was one of my favorite places to see a concert or other event. Stuff I've been to there off the top of my head:

* Tragically Hip
* Collective Soul
* Goo Goo Dolls
* Blue Rodeo
* Holly Cole
* Jann Arden
* Roch Vousine
* Jesse Cook
* Nathalie MacMaster
* Prince
* Cats
* Phantom of the Opera
* Tom Cochrane
* Les Mis
* Blue Man Group
* Warren Miller Ski Films
* World Adventure Tour Films

There's a bunch of others too... I go to way too many things!

[browna]

It definatley screamed 60's, which was kinda cool, but I never went to too many things were the place was jammed to the rafters.
I liked the old red plush cushion seats.

My list is not quite as exclusive as Mr. Ski's:

Mr. Dressup as a 5 year old.
A Christmas Carol
Grad ceremonies for two cousins back in the 80's
Played there 3 times for Kiwinas Music Festival
A few Rememberance Day ceremonies

A couple other things over the years too..but never a major concert.

I am fairly certian it will be used a lot more now that its state of the art...

[I-Hate-Hulse]

I'm hoping they do enough work to house some of the larger productions that previously bypassed Calgary due to space constraints. I saw the Lion King production at the Princess of Wales in T.O. (hey, that's Camilla now!) and it was great, would loved to have seen that make it to Calgary.

[octothorp]

Now that you mention the seats, yeah, they were great. I wonder where one could get a half-dozen of them to put along a wall. That would be a super thing to have in a basement. I mean, there must be thousands of them somewhere and I can't imagine that they'd be easy to recycle.

[calf]

the seats were good...but it sucked that if you're taller than 5'7, your knees would be against the seat in front of you.

[Incinerator]

Can't wait till The Magic Flute next April