2008 Woodie Awards
Officials determine safety of Lovett floor
Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: News
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Editor in Chief
After dancing shyly beside their seats during a seemingly endless set of songs during the Ben Folds concert Monday night, the crowd at Lovett Auditorium couldn't take it anymore.
Loving fans crowded the front of the stage to get a closer look at Folds and to give them more space to move their bodies.
But bodies weren't the only thing moving.
With a substantial portion of the more than 1,000-person crowd huddled near the edge of the stage, the floor beneath the crowd took on a rhythm of its own, moving with every beat of music and every stomping foot.
Regional Special Events Center Facility Manager Jason Pittman said despite the concern about the safety of the floor and the structural integrity of the support system beneath it, no problems concerning the floor have occurred since the RSEC began coordinating concerts at Lovett about seven years ago.
"Never have I been approached by (Facilities Management) with an explicit warning," Pittman said. "I think at some events you get into a situation where when everyone jumps in unison, you can feel them jumping and that is sort of a scary situation, but that's when we really, really try to watch to keep people cleared off of that. … But (previously) we've had big crowds standing down there and we've never had a problem."
Although the venue - built in 1928 - has hosted a long list of concerts this year, Lovett's stage originally served as a basketball court. With its athletic years buried in the past, the building predominately serves as a lecture hall hosting both University and community events.
The building, however, housed an orchestra pit in its earlier years and the remnants of that pit, now boxed in by wooden panels underneath the floors surface, rest just beyond the stage where adoring fans congregate toward the end of an electrifying concert.
Contrary to rumors about the width and depth of the pit, a tour underneath Lovett led by Director of Facilities Management Kim Oatman showed the former pit was about four-feet wide and one-foot deep. The actual floor is constructed of sturdy wood measuring about two inches in width and is supported by a number of brick-based pillars, steel beams and sub-flooring.
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