Costs mount for Ford Theatre renovation; the rush is on to beat El Niño

With expenses ballooning for a makeover of the John Anson Ford Theatre, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved spending $8.6 million more on the project, raising the cost to about $66 million.

The added funding passed unanimously and means that the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, which runs the outdoor theater near the Hollywood Bowl, won’t have to abandon plans for several important upgrades, said Laura Zucker, the commission’s executive director.

Work at the 1,196-seat theater includes redoing the stage, upgrading production technology, installing a better sound barrier to keep performance audio in and freeway noise out, adding a patio that can seat 200 and improving drainage to reduce flooding risks.

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With severe rains expected this winter due to El Niño, the most pressing job is to finish the new drainage system, Zucker said. Flooding and a small mudslide hit the theater in 2005 when heavy winter rains saturated the hill behind the stage.

Without the funding boost, Zucker said, the Ford would have had to give up a higher, more sophisticated, double-walled sound barrier that’s intended to improve the audience experience, and a new audio-video control booth that will be better positioned for projections. The current booth is off-center, she said, resulting in oddly shaped images.

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For the Record

An earlier version of this article contained a typographical error implying the audio-video control booth is centered. It is not.

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Zucker said $5.5 million is needed to meet more stringent electrical standards adopted by the state after the original design and estimates were done.

Some planned amenities are being dropped or revised to save money. Among the features being sacrificed: a break room for the staff, a fountain outside the theater and some of the fancy concrete and ceramic tile in the original plan. Instead of an elevator that can carry 5,000-pound loads, the Ford will make do with a 3,000-pound capacity.

In addition to the $8.6 million in county payments approved Tuesday, a private, nonprofit foundation that supports the Ford donated $605,000, and the county earmarked $550,000 in future funding.

The funding OKd Tuesday does not include a $199,000 request for a digital projection system that Zucker considers a must for the Ford to show films properly. She expects the Board of Supervisors to take that up later this month when it considers allocating budget surpluses from the fiscal year that ended June 30. Last year, those “supplemental budget� appropriations included $28.6 million for the Ford Theatre project.

The Ford is closed this summer, with a planned public reopening next July. By then it no longer will have the 87-seat Inside the Ford indoor theater that had rested behind the amphitheater. It will be replaced by a food concession for ready-to-eat sandwiches, salads and snacks.

The Arts Commission has mapped out future improvements that would lift the total cost to more than $100 million and add parking garages and indoor theaters of 299 and 99 seats. That future phase has not been approved or funded by the Board of Supervisors.

Zucker said there’s no revised estimate for that future construction phase. “We’re going to get through this one first,� she said.

Twitter: @boehmm

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