The Insane Plan to Lift a New York Theatre

Ah, Broadway, the world's most famous theater district, the glitzy glamour, the roar of the grease paint, the smell of the crowd, nowhere in New York embodies the history of the great white road more than the iconic Palace Theater , has hosted greats like Harry Houdini, Liza Minelli and SpongeBob SquarePants, after more than a century of entertaining audiences in Times Square, it's getting a well-deserved face

lift

. Millions are being spent restoring the interior, remodeling the elaborate plaster work, creating new lighting fixtures and we are taking a 100-year-old landmark theater and

lift

ing it up. up 30 feet wait what a theater lift involves raising an entire 1700 seat theater 30 feet from its current elevation.

That's right, more than just the curtain is rising on this

plan

to build the largest, most cutting-edge entertainment venue in Times Square. so if you're wondering how and why a historic theater is being lifted almost 10 meters in the air then grab some popcorn and take a seat, the show is about to begin our story begins here in Times Square in 1913, where the businessman Martin Beck wanted a large theater. theater to show the best acts of the day gives people the feeling that you already know the event when you enter a space like that where it is a beautiful place and the palace was meant to be a kind of palace, the combination of acts of Renown and the lavish interiors were an instant success and the palace became one of the most successful theaters in the district, loved by artists and audiences alike.

Sarah Bernhardt made seven thousand dollars a week, that's more money by a factor of about four, I think, than the president of the United States made at the time, but the good times were not to last into the 1990s. 1980. Times Square was undergoing a major renovation and when

plan

s were announced to build a new hotel on the site of the palace, it looked like theater curtains, but it's not over until the fat lady sings and at the last minute she gave the palace the status of the city's historic landmark, the same designation given to buildings like the Empire State and the Guggenheim Museum, avoided demolition and set strict rules on any alteration without flinching.

In 1987, plans for the hotel followed. Go ahead anyway, but instead of tearing down the palace theater, the hotel was built around it, 30 years later, and this time it's the hotel that's out, welcome. The 1980s structure is being demolished to make way for this. We're going to have a hotel development, a retail development, and an actual Broadway theater all contained within our property. The 170 meter tower clearly wants to make a statement, but to steal the spotlight in the midst of all this you need to do something very special and that something is this. a spectacular open-air platform for musicians and live events that rises thirty feet above Seventh Avenue, and in case that doesn't catch your attention, you can watch the artists on the largest and most advanced screen in Times Square.

What makes our sign unique is us. actually design two large 15 by 15 foot door leaves so that when the doors are in the closed position it will appear that there are no doors, it will just appear as a normal LED signal, when the doors are in the open position they will open towards inside. will allow bands to perform concerts and not only be able to be the live audience in Times Square, but hopefully broadcast to the general public over the Internet, connected to this will be two floors of what is promised to be the ultimate in experiences. retail To make the most of the incredible location, this gallery space will be located on the ground floor on one of the busiest corners in the United States, exactly where the palace theater registered as a historic city landmark has been located for over a hundred years, let's rewind a little the historic designation that saved the palace in the 80s only applied to the interior of the theater, everything but the auditorium stage was torn down when the building was absorbed by the hotel, this gave tsx broadway developers an idea when we bought the property where the palace theater existed.

At ground level we needed to move the theater to the side with that in mind, we said okay, what if we lifted the theater box to open up and activate the ground floor and the other commercial potential of this project. So that's why now. What about how the existing tower was partially demolished and a structure put in place to support the remaining floors? The basement was then prepared for the elevator and the steel work above the theater was cleaned to give it room to move at least towards the The site is not right next to one of the busiest and most photographed public squares in the world that never takes a moment of pause without pressure guys, you have a typical job in Manhattan, you come to your foundation, the guy is going to start, he leaves the superstructure. comes maybe steel, you know, once everyone does this job, there were four alphas on the job at the same time, they all had to work together and you have urban foundations all the time underneath all of this trying to achieve this achievement of The part The most challenging part of the project was clearing the theater's basement to allow the installation of some 34 specially designed lifting posts without undermining the 48-story building above.

Go in there, basically you have to take the top bird, now cut a little. of the rock, but you can't go too deep because you can't undermine the existing foundation and then put a drilling rig there after creating the clearance, obviously, step by step, one by one, we drill the 40 inch holes. We put a 36-inch casing in there and then we put what was essentially the lifting mechanism on the can, which is where all the work is done. This was the hardest part. The first phase began in January when a little over three inches was lifted to Test the equipment's tilt meters ensured the theater remained level during the lift and that a series of monitors were in place to detect any damage as it was lifted. lifted through the structure and that was the biggest risk in the theater was making sure the theater was raised safely. making sure that there was no damage to the internal structure of the theater, the only thing that the elevator had was that it had extensometers, which were small devices that were connected to each connector and that became like a main hub, just like we were.

By pushing up in the theater I could monitor that we weren't reaching one area, it was going faster than another you know. Pushing the theater out of the pipes as well as heavy equipment, a small army of specialists worked on the elevator, three different teams. A team of structural engineers was hired to focus on the foundations, lifting apparatus and the theater itself, once the team was satisfied with the performance of the equipment, the main phase began on February 14, 2022, the jacks hydraulics raised the theater box with movements of 12 centimeters after each one. Following these moves a team of consultants carried out a thorough inspection of the structure before work continued after seven painstaking weeks, the lifting was finally completed on April 5th to see the theater rise again, yes it was very difficult, It made everyone a little nervous, but ultimately it was an impressive moment for me, the team, the consultants, now that the theater has been moved into position, a team of specialist restoration workers will renovate it on opening night , theatergoers will enter through a new lobby and be treated. to an auditorium that has been restored to its former splendor the theater may have started life as a palace but is now part of something even bigger the renovation has begun all those back house support areas that play second fiddle to The performance areas are now going to be the latest in 21st century technology and everyone will want to play in the palace they wanted to play in before, but now it will be even more attractive.

Will it do justice to the place that welcomed everyone from Judy Garland to Frank? sinatra and raising the theater will be enough to bring the house down, obviously the new design of the palace is not an old style palace, but you know, I think it will be fine, it will be interesting, I really am. I'm a little excited to see how it all plays out, but before the theater reopens for the next generation of stars, there's another group that needs to take a bow to raise the roof. It's a testament to my team, the consulting team to the construction team. that we can do this and do it safely, the show must go on and for the palace theater it will thanks to the skill of the modern construction industry, so here's a big round of applause for everyone involved, if you'll excuse me.

I have a ticket to the most popular show in town. If you enjoyed this video and want an encore of the ultimate construction and wordplay video channel, be sure to subscribe to b1n.