June 14, 2023 Update- A strong foundation

 Dear Neighbors,

As of 5/22/23, we officially launched into the construction phase of the Victoria Theatre Art Center project. Thank you to those of you who were able to join us for the groundbreaking ceremony for great food, music and conversation.

What’s been happening?

Foundation. As you can imagine, establishing a strong foundation of any building is very important for the longevity of a building so we’ve been doing some demolition work to see what’s underneath the floor to identify what we should keep and what we should replace. This is all in preparation for pouring the concrete slab floor.

Lane Closures.You may have already noticed lane closure on University Ave and construction vehicles moving in and out of the alleyway. This will continue to occur intermittently for the length of the project. 

What’s coming up? 

Building a Fence. For the purposes of securing construction materials, we’re going to be installing a fence on the vacant lot between Ryan Plumbing & Heating and the Ethiopian Restaurant, Demera. 

Tuckpointing. In the next couple of weeks, we will begin tuckpointing work on the interior and exterior walls of the building. Tuckpointing involves removing a portion of the deteriorated mortar, filling the joints with new mortar (that closely matches the color of the brick), and then applying a thin line of putty in a contrasting color down the center of the joint. This creates the illusion of well-maintained and narrow joints (learn more about tuckpointing here).

If you have any questions, comments or concerns throughout the project, please contact mercedes@victoriatheater.org

That’s all for now, folks! We’ll reach out in a few weeks for another round of ‘what’s been happening’ and what’s coming up’. Stay tuned!