Lyric Opera 2023-2024 Issue 1 - The Flying Dutchman

13 | Lyric Opera of Chicago “It’s going to have a signi cant effect on our patrons,” says John Yelen, Senior Director of Facilities for Lyric. “Coming into the building, this will make people feel comfortable immediately.” “The problem,” notes Drew Landmesser, Lyric’s Chief Operating Of cer and Deputy General Director, “was the outside. That aspect of Chicago that likes to fool with us. In winter in Chicago, the wind outside is just too strong. You can’t ght it back.” Which is not to say that, over the years, the building’s caretakers didn’t try. In the 1990s, newventilationwas added to the outer breezeway entrance alongWacker Drive. It didn’t helpmuch. Adecade ago, the company tried portable heaters, whichmade the entryway sound like an airport. More than once, the lobby and the auditorium were preheated, as if preparing to receive a risen loaf of bread. But during the period known throughout the company as “rush hour”—the 30 minutes or so before curtain—the outer doorsweremostly open and, inside, everythingwould cool off, sometimes for the rest of the evening. The large arched entry in the grand foyer, and the two doors leading to the house stairs on the east side of the building, leaked heat—or rather, allowed the cold in. The glasswall project, Landmesser notes, is “amore radical approach of looking at these large openings.” The most immediately apparent part of the project is the custom set of glass panels between the foyer and the lobby. Made of ½-inch thick glass fabricated by Ohio’s Oldcastle Perrysburg company, the 14-foot high by 20-feet wide installation required exceptional skill to t into the curved archway. The two smaller doorways in the lobby were fabricated in Michigan by the Glass & Metal Craft company—and were the larger challenge. “The doors on the north are actually more complicated than the doors on the west. Those may look like at, rectangular openings, but they’re not,” says Len Koroski, Principal at the Goettsch Partners rm, and the architect of record on the project. “The lobby is a very tricky lobby in terms of its slopes and cross slopes, and its structural conditions. We’re not putting in square doors; we’re putting in rhombus doors.” “The part that people don’t see is the important part,” adds Landmesser. “Isn’t that how it always is?” All the sconces and chandeliers in the space were carefully removed, each piece of glass getting individually bubble-wrapped, and the xtures were entirely rewired. (Last January, virtually unseen, Lyric’s technical team updated all the sconces in the main foyer. While they were at it, they redid the wireless routers necessary for the ticket scanners. The project list is virtually endless.) In a small room along Madison Street, once home to a kiosk that sold candy to commuters coming and going from the train station across the river, an independent air handler system has been installed. “A lot of duct work has been rerouted underneath the lobby,” notes Yelen. “In order to maintain the balance of the room, they changed some returns to supplies, and some supplies to returns.” “All historic buildings have to adapt and change with the times,” notes Koroski. “It’s our job to usher in that change in a fashion that’s respectful, and without visual impact.” As a gift that will bene t many generations to come, the glass curtain seems a marvelously appropriate way to honor the Crowe family’s longtime relationship with the company. Jack and Peggy Crowe rst formally joined the Lyric family in 1992, when they became subscribers. Jack, who passed away in 2017, served on Lyric’s Board of Directors from 1992 to 2007. His love for the art form started early, when his mother would play him recordings of Enrico Caruso; the fth- oor foyer of the opera house is named for her. Over the years, the couple—particular admirers of Puccini—sponsored several productions and other large-scale projects. “Jack brought me to the opera,” Peggy remarked not long ago. “It was our thing.” One of the couple’s daughters, Mimi Crowe Mitchell, caught the opera bug as well. She rst subscribed to Lyric in the 2007/08 Season, when she joined the Women’s Board. Among other leadership roles with that group, she served as President from 2014 to 2017, then joined the full Board of Directors. Mimi Crowe Mitchell (at left) and her husband,Todd (at right), ank her parents,John“Jack”V.Crowe and Margaret Ann“Peggy”Crowe. Dan Rest