You may have noticed the copious amount of scaffolding between the Jesuit graveyard and New North while walking across Red Square this week; finally, construction has begun on the new home of Georgetown’s Program in Performing Arts.
With an estimated completion date in June of 2005, construction is racing along. Tuesday’s PPA open house, this year held in Leavey, is scheduled to be held next year in the new building.
More than just the building plans are rapidly taking shape. With new faculty members throughout the program, the PPA is moving previous faculty members from part-time staff to full-time tenure-track positions to garner a bigger faculty presence within the music and theater programs.
The construction of the building itself has moved beyond the foundation phase. Cement was poured this weekend for an orchestra pit: if you look hard enough, you may see a curved, low shape already imprinted in the lowest level of the building’s skeleton. Walls and rooms are becoming identifiable as they are suited for their functions.
Ron Lignelli, managing director of the PPA, is beginning to think in terms of details. “They’re putting the bricks and mortar in, what color seats do we want?” he rhetorically asked. If plans continue according to schedule, such detail-oriented questions will dominate the dialogue surrounding the PPA’s new building instead of whether the building will be built at all.
