Ellie Caulkins Opera House

Stories by Chryss Cada

This fall Denver celebrated the grand opening of the city's newest theater, called The Ellie Caulkins Opera House, skillfully built within the shell of the historic Quigg Newton Auditorium. Dubbed "The Ellie" by locals, the new venue brings with it the opportunity to present ballet and opera in a world-class space designed specifically for that purpose. This special project profile describes how the transformation happened.

Staging History
Denver's historical Auditorium Theater emerged as a multi-purpose venue

World-Class Culture
Ellie Caulkins Opera House helps make the city a cultural destination

Unclassic Design
New theater has a timeless look and feel without the classical

Salmon and Sardines
The 'Ellie' opens on time despite a tight urban site and schedule

Staging History
Denver's historical Auditorium Theater emerged as a multi-purpose venue

Denver's historic Quigg Newton Auditorium had become outdated as a theatrical venue and needed to be renovated to meet the artistic standards of a modern opera house.

Over the past 40 years, many of Denver's theater-goers had visited the city's historic Quigg Newton Auditorium to see big budget musicals and high-profile Broadway touring shows like Miss Saigon and Phantom of the Opera.

However, it's likely that only a few patrons realized that the old theater - known to locals simply as the Auditorium Theater - had undergone more facelifts in its 100-year history than an aging actor.

Multi-Purpose Venue

Quigg Newton Auditorium was originally built to be Denver's combination convention center, athletic arena, theater and concert hall. It could hold more than 12,000 people, had flexible seating with movable walls and provided the city with a multi-purpose event venue.

It first opened in 1908, was gutted and renovated in 1955, then renovated again in 1966 and 1991. As one of downtown Denver's last surviving large theaters, the auditorium served from the 1950s through the 1980s as Denver's home for symphony concerts, touring musicals and plays. Along with its Broadway mix, the auditorium also hosted the majority of performances by the Colorado Ballet, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble and the Denver Brass.

Starting in the mid-1970s, Denver began construction of what is now one of the nation's largest performing arts venues - the Denver Performing Arts Complex - nine theaters, a parking garage and an expansive, covered galleria that serves as an outdoor lobby. The DPAC is anchored by the Auditorium Theater, which sits at its front door on 14th Street.
But as the city gradually built more specialized convention and assembly facilities, it didn't need the old auditorium to be as flexible as it was. In the 1950s, the historic assembly hall was largely demolished to create a permanent 2,100-seat theater. In the 1960s, leftover space behind the theater became meeting rooms for the convention center. Over time, there wasn't much of the original interior left.

Shortcomings

The building also had a lot of shortcomings. The seating was uncomfortable, with only 31 in. of space between rows in the balcony and the capacity was limited to 2,067, with most seats located in the balcony. Patron comfort was diminished by minimal restroom capacity, severely substandard lobbies and limited ADA compliance, with no handicapped accessible dressing rooms, no elevators, few ADA accessible restrooms, and little choice of seating for wheelchair patrons.

The auditorium's performance capabilities were also compromised. The orchestra pit was not large enough to host opera performances or scenically demanding theater productions, the fly tower was not high enough for most flown scenery without special provisions, and the sets had to be unloaded from trucks parked on busy 14th Street, since the theater had no loading dock.

But life safety and code concerns topped the list. The 1955 renovation did not meet code requirements of that time and did not provide adequate fire protection standards or exits. At 50-plus years old, the mechanical systems had reached the end of their expected life, and the electrical system needed to be upgraded to handle the complex needs of modern theatrical productions.

The building also offer limited exposure to its history. The few original elements that remained on the interior of the auditorium were hidden behind walls and ceilings that were added over time. Members of the public who were interested in the building's history couldn't see the historic portions of it even if they tried.

It became clear to everyone in the city's arts community that the old auditorium had to be torn down or renovated - as soon as possible.

Selective Restoration

Renovation of the Auditorium Theater had long been a major goal of former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, who created a task force of citizens chaired by his wife, former First Lady Wilma Webb to lead the effort. They quickly decided that demolishing the building would do an injustice to the historic fabric of Denver, and preliminary studies showed that the building's historic facade could probably be saved; there were questions about its structural integrity.
Then in November 2002, voters approved a bond issue that enabled the City and County of Denver, which owns the building, to move forward with a combination of restoration, renovation and new construction to literally create a new theater within the shell of the historic landmark. A group called Friends of Denver's Historic Auditorium spearheaded the campaign to get voter approval of the bond issue and raise additional funds for other building amenities.

The Friends organization was supported by a diverse group of civic organizations, including the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, Denver Public Schools, Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau, Colorado AFL-CIO, Denver Area Labor Federation, Colorado Business Committee for the Arts, Mayor's Commission on Art, Culture and Film, and Historic Denver.

The Denver firm of Semple Brown Design PC was hired to lead the renovation design, which borrowed lessons from the past but would not be historic in appearance. The exterior of the building would be selectively restored, replacing damage from the 1950's and 1960's additions. But the theater inside would not re-create the 1908 design.
"We had the opportunity to design a full-time theater, not the multipurpose room that was there originally," said Peter Lucking, Semple Brown's lead theater designer. "This theater focuses on meeting Denver's very specific need for a theater with beautiful, natural acoustics and the technical support necessary for world-class opera, dance and music."
Also, building the theater from the ground up helped address the code problems and accessibility issues that spurred the building's renovation in the first place.
Denver's PCL Construction was hired as the general contractor for the project, which took nearly two years to complete.

The renovated Quigg Newton Auditorium, now known as the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, has become the home of Opera Colorado and the Colorado Ballet. It reopened to the public this fall, just three years short of its centennial.

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World-Class Culture
Ellie Caulkins Opera House helps make the city a cultural destination

Denver's new theater re-creates the "front door" of the city's performing arts complex and brings with it a new level of excitement about regional opera and ballet.

Ellie is already taking the Denver cultural scene to the next level on her exquisitely appointed shoulders.

"An opera house was the last major type of performing arts venue Denver didn't have," said Jack Finlaw, director of Denver's Division of Theatres and Arenas. "With this beautiful, state-of-the-art facility, we become a true cultural destination."

Denver's new home for opera and ballet is literally and figuratively the cornerstone of the city's cultural landscape. The building at the corner of 14th and Champa streets - officially named the Quigg Newton Denver Municipal Auditorium after Denver's mayor from 1947 to 1955 - has long been the gateway to the city's theaters in the Denver Performing Arts Complex.
But the historic 1908 auditorium, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Denver Landmarks List, had not been renovated since the mid-1950s, and concerns about its aging mechanical and structural systems, if not addressed, would have led to its eventual closure. Functionally and aesthetically, it was badly in need of renovation.

"Our 'front door' was in shambles," Finlaw said. "To get to the other buildings, you had to walk by this once-beautiful building that had become a blight."

The First Lady of Opera

The $92 million renovation of the building woke the sleeping beauty. While the exterior walls were renovated and left intact, the inside was gutted and replaced with a 2,400-seat proscenium theater designed around unamplified natural acoustics and good sight lines to the stage.

All building elements, from the lobby, concessions and restroom areas, dressing rooms for performers, the loading dock for sets and equipment - even better leg room in the seating areas - were addressed in the renovation. After nearly two years of construction, the beautiful Ellie Caulkins Opera House, named after Denver's "First Lady of Opera," was unveiled to the public in early September.

Ellie Caulkins herself couldn't be more pleased with the results. "How do I feel about being a building?" she said. "Excited, and embarrassed from time to time."

Mostly, Caulkins is happy about the role her namesake theater will play in taking the performing arts to the next level in Colorado. "This opera house is good for the opera, good for the performing arts and good for Colorado," Caulkins said. "It completes the cultural offerings of the city."

A leader on the board of directors for Opera Colorado since its inception more than 20 years ago, Caulkins also has a long and illustrious association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. In addition to working tirelessly to gain voter approval of public funding for the Quigg Newton Auditorium renovation, her family gave $7 million toward the enhancement of Denver's new opera house and adjacent public spaces.

Enhanced Sales

The most immediate benefits of the new facility will go to its primary tenants, the Colorado Ballet and, of course, Caulkins' beloved Colorado Opera.

After a glittering opening night performance on Sept. 10 that featured some of the world's best opera talent, the Colorado Ballet was the first group to experience the benefits of the newly renovated theatre when it debuted Sleeping Beauty on Sept. 23.

"There's a lot of buzz around the facility that has really driven ticket sales," said Lisa Schneider, interim executive director of the Colorado Ballet.

Single ticket sales for Sleeping Beauty were at 60 percent before the ballet opened - even higher than they are for perennial audience favorite, The Nutcracker.

"It's a magnificent facility for both the audience and the performers," she said. "What the dancers like about it is that they feel like they can see every person in the audience."

And for audience members who might have trouble following the storyline of a ballet or opera, Ellie's new seat-back electronic text offers a synopsis and translation, where necessary.

"It's my understanding that we're the first ballet in the world to use such a system," Schneider said. "That will provide an additional experience for our audiences."

Sound Effect

Schneider also has high praise for the Ellie's acoustics.

"The acoustics in the opera house give people a chance to hear the orchestra without amplification," she said. "We've been trained in the past 10 to 20 years to hear music very loud. You get a truer sound when the music isn't amplified."

The acoustics will also be a major improvement for Opera Colorado, which, since its founding in 1981, has never performed in a theater created for the specific needs of opera.

"We've had no choice but to have invention out of necessity," said Peter Russell, president and general director of Opera Colorado.

The company has presented theater-in-the-round in Boettcher Concert Hall.
"The sight lines weren't great and the acoustics were such that we had to use amplification," he said. "When these operas were written in the 17th century, they were never intended to be performed with a microphone."

At Ellie, no microphones will be needed. Natural sound is contained inside the room and bounced to the audience off a 12-in.-thick concrete wall that encases the theater.

Designers added a movable wall in the orchestra pit to adjust the sound volume according the needs of individual performances. They also worked hard to create sound consistency so that the music heard in the back row - over 100 ft from the stage and more than five stories high - is as close as possible to what front-row patrons will hear.

Scheduling

Because Boettcher Concert Hall is primarily the home of the Colorado Symphony, Opera Colorado also had to work around its schedule. They would rotate two operas at one time in April and May to make the most of Boettcher's limited availability. The only other show was staged in February.

With its new home, Opera Colorado has spread out its schedule to stage a production in November, one in February and one that opens at the end of April.
"It makes it more appealing to the audience to have a little space between shows," Russell said.

The opera has more subscribers this season than it has ever had and Russell said there are a lot of new names on the list.

"Opera hasn't been on a lot of people's radar screen," he said. "Or maybe they went once, and it was cramped, and they couldn't hear, so they didn't come back."
In a leap of faith, the company expanded its first offering of Carmen from four performances to eight. Early ticket sales proved that the decision was a solid one. They sold 800 single-seat tickets on the first day; before Ellie, they would were selling about 300 on the first day.

In addition to helping ticket sales, the new facility will help arts organizations raise funds as the Chambers Grant Salon offers the opportunity for groups to wine and dine patrons.
The benefits of the new facility will have a ripple effect beyond the primary groups housed there.

"This new facility allows other theaters to bulk up their schedules," Finlaw said. "Also we can now fine tune the Boettcher Concert Hall for the symphony."
The new space might even bring something new to Denver.
"We'd like to find a promoter to bring in some dramatic Broadway plays," Finlaw said. "It would be nice to add something completely new to Denver's cultural landscape." <<

Unclassic Design
New theater has a timeless look and feel without the classical

Ellie's design team created a quality sound experience and audience amenities befitting a world-class performance venue.

The Ellie Caulkins Opera House designers always had high expectations.

"From the beginning, we set out to design one of the top 10 opera houses in the world, and we've never wavered from that," said Chris Wineman of Denver's Semple Brown Design PC, the project architect. "We had a lot of people say, 'Be quiet about that, let's wait and see' - but it became our galvanizing motto."

Acoustic Quality

First, the design team had to determine what it is that makes a great opera house.
"We spent about a month discussing just that question," said Semple Brown's Peter Lucking. "We determined that the number one criteria is acoustic quality."

For this piece of the project, one of the country's top experts on acoustics was called in as a consultant - Bob Mahoney of Boulder's Robert F. Mahoney Associates. The acoustic performance of the main hall was the primary design factor in the choice of construction materials.

The curved drum wall at the back of the theater was built with poured-in-place concrete, much of it left as an exposed finish to provide an acoustical mass separating the theater space from the public lobbies. Good sound isolation keeps the traffic noises outside and circulates natural sound inside so that the performers' words and music reach the audience at the right level.

Also, the seating levels from the orchestra to the upper balcony were formed in the shape of complex curves. This design allows for better sight lines - no seat is farther than 112 ft from the stage - as well as enriched sound quality. People speaking at normal voice levels on stage can be heard clearly even in the theater's back row.

But good sound design also means reducing noise as well as enhancing quality. Too much mechanical noise can detract from any performance venue, but "pin-drop" quiet is especially important in an opera house, where unamplified voices must carry clearly to all 2,400 patrons.

Denver's M-E Engineers was the mechanical and electrical engineer for the project, responsible for the design and construction administration of all the heating, ventilation and air conditioning, piping, plumbing, fire protection, power, lighting, fire alarm, security and tele/data systems.

M-E designed an HVAC system for the Ellie with low-air velocities and large ducts to reduce noise. Silencers, which absorb sound in the air ducts, were used on all supply systems so fan noise would not filter into the auditorium. For more efficiency, ductwork was designed to "self-balance" wherever possible, reducing the need for balance dampers and, in turn, cutting noise, costs and energy usage.

Audience Amenities

Next on the list for building a great opera house was creating a timeless, but not necessarily classic, design. Those involved with Ellie wanted it to look current and require no major renovations for the next 50 to 100 years.

"Most other opera houses designed recently take a more literal approach to interpreting a classic look," Lucking said. "We looked at how those classic designs work and then designed a building that does those things without reproducing the classics."

That includes the fact that most classic opera houses incorporate columns. "The purpose of those columns is to bring one's eyes to the ground," he said. "We used other design elements to do that. We don't actually have a single column in the theater."

The result of this approach is an opera house with clean, modern lines that don't compromise its visual impact.

The design team also created audience amenities at the Ellie that represent a leap forward in customer service - increased leg room, more >> restrooms, a much larger lobby, premium sight lines for all patrons, enhanced refreshment areas and some handy technology for more casual theatergoers.

"You say 'opera house' and people think of a place with a sense of grandeur," Lucking said. "We've created that sense of grandeur, and we've included the other element that people associate with an opera house-red seats."

Like all the other elements in the Ellie, those seats are functional as well as being attractive. Each audience member has his or her own electronic seat-back text delivery system that allows for translation or clarification of what is happening on stage. There's also an average of 37 in. between the backs of chairs, providing for plenty of leg room.
Audience comfort was also a design issue. In Colorado's dry climate, humidification is required most of the year to keep the performance area at 40 percent relative humidity. This could have been an expensive undertaking using traditional methods because normal indoor conditions vary between 10 and 35 percent relative humidity.

M-E Engineers chose a direct evaporative system where hot, dry air is passed over a wet porous surface. This "media" evaporates water into the air, adding moisture to humidify it and cooling the air through the evaporation process without the use of air-conditioning compressors. This inexpensive evaporative cooling is used as a first resort to maintain temperatures within the seating area. Then, once humidity levels are met, a bypass damper sends the air around the evaporative media to prevent over-humidification. This sophisticated HVAC system keeps the auditorium at the right temperature and humidity levels year round.

"The entire building was designed for customer service and comfort," said Jack Finlaw, director of Denver's Division of Theatres and Arenas.

First Impressions

The aesthetic needs of patrons are satisfied even before they enter the grand lobby, as the original Palladian glass windows on the exterior walls make the space highly visible to passers-by.

Inside, two sets of majestic stairs descend from the historic corners of the building, encircling the donor recognition walls. All levels of the lobby can be viewed from the stairs, which were crafted from terrazzo and elegant glass handrails. There are three bars featuring warm cherry wood, dramatic lighting and sophisticated backlit glass displays.
The renovated auditorium also has increased entertainment and dining options. The Chambers Grant Salon is enclosed in the original sandstone walls that form the foundation of the Quigg Newton Auditorium. Featuring a stage for small performances or presentation, the salon covers 11,620 sq ft and can serve 750 patrons. The salon is also home to Kevin Taylor's at the Opera House, a full-service gourmet restaurant.

"We feel successful so far in making the audience feel comfortable and welcome in the space," Wineman said. "Making it a great place makes it a place people are more likely to come back to."

Backstage Amenities

In addition to the general public, the building was designed to better serve the building's tenants (such as the Colorado Ballet) and the performers who use it. To that end, the renovated auditorium has greatly increased the number of dressing rooms and other support services for performing artists.

The new "star" dressing rooms are equipped like luxury hotel suites, with plenty of room to prepare for the show, get dressed or just relax.

"Even the dressing rooms are a part of making this a great opera house," Wineman said. "Everyone involved with this building is being held at a high level of performance. We want the performers in top form because this place is special and it deserves everyone's best."

Salmon and Sardines
The 'Ellie' opens on time despite a tight urban site and schedule

The PCL Construction team that built the Ellie Caulkins Opera House had one city block in which to stage and build the city's newest performance venue.

Because its interior was completely rebuilt while its historic exterior walls were left standing, the Quigg Newton Auditorium renovation has often been likened to "building a ship in a bottle," but those close to the project say it was more like "trying to stuff a salmon in a sardine can."

"The challenges started right from the start," said Larry Kemp, who oversaw the project for Martin/Martin Inc., the structural engineer. "We had to figure out how to keep 4 two-ft-thick, 85-ft tall unreinforced brick walls standing while we were demoing the interior of the building."

Kemp jokes that he wasn't in the auditorium if he didn't have to be during that phase of the construction.

The walls are actually 70 ft tall, but the new structure required digging four ft deeper than the existing 12-ft basement. The system for bracing the building included several components. Horizontal soil nails were used for tie-backs that tensioned against flat steel plates to stabilize the below-grade sections of the perimeter walls. That helped support them against the traffic vibrations on 14th and Champa streets, just outside the auditorium.

Permanent construction of the new foundation wall elements was accomplished using cantilevered piers, post-tensioned tie-downs (vertical micropiles) and retaining grade beams that stabilized the existing building footings that were undermined by the additional depth required for the new structure. Aircraft cable and tube steel bracing above ground level stabilized the above-grade section of all perimeter walls from wind. All bracing fell within the space occupied by the existing seven pairs of lattice columns.

Preservation & Renewal

The city wanted to preserve the exterior of the historic building, which is the cornerstone of the Denver Performing Arts Complex. "There used to be a lot of void spaces in the auditorium where nothing happened," said Peter Lucking of Semple Brown Design, the project architect. "It wasn't an efficient use of space."

The auditorium's wasted space was also a blight on Denver's burgeoning performing arts scene. The space crunch in the auditorium had performers working under sub-par conditions. The building wasn't up to ADA standards and there weren't even enough bathrooms for audience members.

This is where the "salmon in the sardine can" comes in.

General contractor PCL Construction Services of Denver worked on a CM/GC contract through a 2,400-construction-activity schedule to build the complex design within the gutted shell.

Architectural elements of the new building include a spacious open lobby, enhanced patron amenities such as restrooms on every level flanking both sides of the theater; food and beverage bars on the salon, orchestra and loge levels; three levels of dressing/break rooms for the performers, musicians and staff; support offices; a carpenter shop; paint/metal shop; and storage areas for the many activities associated with a performing arts facility.

The renovation boosted the space in the auditorium from 105,000 to 280,000 sq ft. The number of seats was increased from 2,067 to 2,268, including the addition of 21 private boxes. Lobby space more than doubled. Renovations deepened the stage and made room for 110 musicians where previously there had been room for only 30.

Additions include a 25,800-sq-ft reception space, a loading dock, two elevators and 66 toilets. Performers now have 13 additional dressing rooms (up to 15, from only two previously), a new "green room" and new wardrobe, hair and make-up rooms. The complex mechanical, electrical, fire and life-safety systems for a public performance space added an additional level of complexity to the building.

Tight Urban Site

"It was very tight, everything fit just so," Kemp said. "We had to be coordinated with all the trades to make sure everything was coming together. We met once a week for more than a year and a half."

Trey Nobles, PCL's project manager, kept an eye on every sliver of space. "It was truly zero tolerance," he said. "Usually, we have inches to spare, but here it was down to 1/8 of an inch."

Operating a construction site in such a tight space brought challenges of its own.

"When I was working on the [Colorado] Convention Center, we had 10 square blocks to work with," said Fred Luetzen, director of facilities for Denver's Division of Theatres and Arenas. "If something didn't fit in one spot, we'd try it in a different spot - but when you're working in a one square block area, you can't move things around."
In fact, it was a challenge just to move supplies. The construction site included only one lane of traffic on 14th and Champa streets, leaving little room for the storage of building supplies. A crane in the middle of what is now the audience seating area lifted supplies inside from the street. When construction was done, the crane itself had to be taken apart and carried out the auditorium doors piece by piece.

The project team also had to deliver the project within the strict budget guidelines of $59.5 million allocated for the cost of constructing the new opera house.

Degree of Difficulty

"You look around this place and it looks clean and simple," Nobles said. "But there was nothing simple about it.'

The city of Denver charged the design and construction team to meet many challenges in the building of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. For example, the mezzanine, which looks straight at first glance, is actually warped to accommodate better sight lines. The orchestra has two pit lifts and additional seats on movable "wagons" stored below the orchestra level seating and rolled into place when the orchestra platforms are not needed for musicians.

The city's Division of Theatres and Arenas had additional furniture, fixtures and equipment that needed to be coordinated, scheduled and installed before the opening performance. In fact, installation, testing and rehearsals were conducted during the last few months of construction.

The building opened as scheduled on September 10 to rave reviews by both music and architecture critics. On September 11, the building was dedicated to the citizens of Denver by Mayor John Hickenlooper.

"When the audiences come in, they don't notice all the construction details that went into this theater," Nobles said. "They just walk away thinking what a great place it is to see the performing arts."

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