By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — The city plans to start work this year on a project to rehab and preserve the decorative facade on the historic Coronado Performing Arts Center.
The repair work has been years in the making, starting in July 2018 when a piece of the decorative cast stone detail fell from the third story and smashed onto the sidewalk below.
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It’s going forward now after the city got a boost from state grant funding to help pay for the up to $3 million project. The work is expected to begin later this year with the majority of the construction taking place in 2025. The repairs are expected to be complete before the end of next year.
“The Coronado is one of the few historic buildings in our community and in our region that is still doing the same thing it did from 1927,” said Beth Howard, executive director of the Friends of the Coronado, a nonprofit that works to restore and preserve the historic theater.
“The stories are embedded here. The memories are embedded here,” she said. “When you don’t protect the historic architecture and you don’t protect that authenticity, the stories start going away.”
The city’s Finance & Personnel Committee on Monday gave the preliminary OK to contract with Berglund Construction Co. for $2.3 million to complete the work. The contract includes about $480,000 in contingency funds for any needed repairs that may be discovered as work begins.
The committee also gave its OK to hire Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates for $130,000 for architectural and construction observation services.
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The work includes repairs to steel-framed windows, decorative cast stone, cladding, terra cotta, wood- and aluminium-framed windows, fire exit doors, storefront windows, glazed brick, stone cladding, concrete and clay brick and patch roof repairs.
The project is funded by two Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity grants totaling more than $1.2 million. There was also $10,000 provided by the Friends of Coronado and the rest is covered by the city’s redevelopment fund, which comes from a tax on tickets to the Coronado and BMO Center.
The Friends of the Coronado commissioned an $18,000 study in 2019 to learn the root causes of theater’s facade issues with the help of a grant from the Smith Charitable Foundation and other donors. That 83-page study by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates was taken to state Sen. Steve Stadelman and state Rep. Maurice West to showcase the need for state funding to support the project.
The study showed the root of the issue was moisture penetrating the joint sealants.
Howard said the Friends of the Coronado are exploring the next steps for the historic theater as well. She said they hope to land grants that could fund additional exterior lighting.
“We think that would be a huge wow factor on this block and would accent the beautiful architecture better,” she said. “Then you can theme it, when there’s something fun. If Broadway brings ‘Wicked’ here you can turn the building green.”
The Coronado opened in October 1927 and was designed in the Spanish Renaissance Revival style to feature elaborate cast stone facade and glazed brick and cast stone at the adjacent retail building.
The theater, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, closed in 1984 while it was owned by Kerasotes Theater.
In 1997, it was donated to the city and restoration plans started to take shape. The theater was reopened in 2001 after an $18.5 million rehabilitation.
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas