AD had the opportunity to celebrate multiple project openings this month: Sullivan Performing Arts Center, the Village Church, Lovers Lane United Methodist Church, World Outreach Center, Champion Forest Children's Building, and the Rockwall-Heath High School Performing Arts Center.
If you've ever been on a construction site about to open, you know that everything centers on timelines and details. All of the trades are onsite all at once working to beat the clock for opening day.
Because AD is a multi-disciplinary firm, we have multiple disciplines on site as well. In addition to "punching" the project (testing to make sure everything is installed properly and creating a punch list for the owner) our audio team works to EQ systems to get the tonal responses correct. The lighting team focuses lights and programs the console. Video calibrates projectors and balances cameras. Acoustics verifies operation of door seals, checks that isolation is in place and takes measurements to verify noise criteria while identifying any problem areas that need to be addressed.
As you might imagine, it is almost impossible to tune a sound system or listen for noise and vibration with drills, nail guns and movement of scaffolding in play, so we tend to wait until the other trades have left for the evening to begin our work. This makes for many late night/early morning meals at Waffle House or Denny's as the team makes their way back to the hotel to catch a few hours of sleep before heading back onsite again.
There is something about being on site in the weeks before a new facility is about to be unveiled. Among the trades, design team and client there are alternate moments of panic and joy as all the final details come together. Being part of this "opening day" energy forms strong relationships--not just between the members of our team, but also with architects, contractors, integrators and clients.
It can be a fairly exclusive club, because the only way you are invited back for the next job is if you did an excellent job on the first one.
It also helps when you are one of those people who work hard with a smile on your face. (Even when a site crew sticks you with the pink hardhat because you were the last one there so you could get some peace and quiet to tune the system.)
