The existing building was designed in the 1960’s for Billy Graham, who produced his televangelist show on site. Accordingly, the program consisted of a film stage, stage support area, concrete film vaults (for storage of nitrate based film), screening, projection and editing rooms on the first and second floors and an apartment on the third floor where Mr. Graham lived while in town.

Several years ago the Grips Local 80 union purchased the building and occupied all three floors as is. However, the existing layout wasn’t efficient for their use and most of the interior spaces lacked natural light, as there wasn’t much of a need for windows in the building’s previous use, with exception of the existing entry where the building had vertical windows in the way of a halfhearted gesture towards Gothic Architecture.

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A financial plan was put into place that consolidated the Grips on the Second Floor, freeing up the Ground Level and Third floor as lease space that would subsidize the improvements made to the building. A credit union and gourmet coffee shop (now under construction) leased the Ground Level and the Stage is leased to local studios for filming. Both the credit union and Grips program called for relocating the existing entry away from the main street to the side of the building off the parking lot. For the credit union it was a security issue, while for the Grips, it was convenience. From an Architectural standpoint this meant contending with the opening left by the existing faux two-story entry and defining a new entry from the parking lot.

 

We adapted our design vocabulary to elements that were familiar to the Local Grips members, such as: cables, clamps, screens, dolly rails, stage lighting, speed rail and various rigging components. This approach worked well on exterior elements, such as the new entry canopy and sunshades that fell under the General Contractor’s scope of work, however we encountered a surprise when it came to some of the interior furniture that we designed which was to be built by the Grips members. The Grips had a culture that we didn’t originally pick up on that evolved out of their work in the movie industry, which poses problems for them to find their own solutions to. Accordingly the members have become accustomed to not following plans or a prescribed direction. While in the process of designing their Board Room and Conference tables, the grips members took our drawings and adopted an attitude of “you’ll see what it looks like when we’re done building it”. So while the Board Room and Conference tables along with some of the interior lighting may look somewhat like our drawings, there were some random changes to how the furniture was detailed or in most cases, clamped together. Though overall, we enjoyed the collaborative process with our clients while designing their furniture and ended up being happier with the end result than had we specified furniture from the usual manufacturers.