It felt like Las Vegas in Tallahassee yesterday, but with high humidity. An absolute record all-time high of 105 degrees. An incredible feeling of heat, even the wind (and there was plenty of it) was hot, hot, hot.
Luckily, we received some good rain in the late afternoon, evening. I've heard thunder this morning as I prepare for work, so there is still rain in the area. If we get our usual afternoon showers with this incredible heat, I can deal with that.
There appears to be something like an extreme weather cycle that processes through every 50-60 years. In preparation for a reunion my wife was hosting at FAMU this spring, I reviewed some of their yearbooks. On February 12, 1958 there was an incredible snowstorm (for Florida) in Tallahassee:
and some 50 or so years later, we have had a couple of winters with phenomenal cold for an extended period. So it goes in the Great Sunshine State. Ever now and then you have to deal with some extremes.
No big deal.
Yesterday, I had to chase down the wife for some information required for some November travel arrangements we're trying to nail down. This required that I head up to "The Hill" (the Florida A&M University campus) to find her (the woman is notorious for not answering her cell phone, etc.). Luckily for me, this happened to be the day when faculty members were allowed to do a tour of the newly refurbished Tucker Hall to inspect their new offices, etc.
Wow!
This is a building that was in dire need of an update and boy, oh boy, did they do a magnificent job. The dollars weren't there for any real extravagance so everything had to be done smartly. And it was. On first glance, the architects and constructors did a fantastic job. The building was a showpiece when it opened in the 1950s. It has two primary functions; it serves as the home for the College of Arts and Sciences -- and -- it is the home of Charles Winter Wood Theatre, the teaching space for FAMU's Essential Theatre.
Yes, it was a former showpiece, but for those unacquainted with the campus I'll never be able to do justice to the institutional nature of Tucker Hall circa 2009. Tile floors that were exactly like the floors I used to strip, prime and wax at Orange Park Elementary School in the 1970s. Concrete walls in the stairwells that were painted in stark orange and green with outlines of college students frozen in time from the late 1960s. That's right, with big Afros and ever-thang.
I swear, it had a creaky elevator that made you self-conscious every time you entered it. Every single time.
Inside Charles Winter Wood, the leak-stained ceiling was garish, plaster would occasionally crumble to the floor, the abused seating strained from far too many large lecture classes being improperly held in the theatre, a cracking sound system failed by popping in and out at the most inopportune times -- all of these things you simply dealt with because FAMU, from a physical plant perspective, quite often has historically had to do more with less. So you learn to deal with it.
However, any College of Arts and Sciences is the heart and soul of a standard American university. FAMU's heart now has an appropriate space from which to function. Outside, they've installed three plazas that circle the building and add to the ambience of the hall (including the theatre). Here's the north entrance to Tucker Hall, which looks very similar to its previous version save for the new plaza in the center of the photo:
Here's another example of an added plaza, on the west side of the building (that's the Journalism building on the right):
That photo doesn't do justice to how much of an improvement has been made through the addition of the plazas, given the ongoing construction as they close-out the final days on the job. Trust me on this one, though. I may be biased but Tucker Hall sits in the very heart of the campus and offers many good photo opportunities. Here are two photos from the northeastern side of the building that, to me, helps to show some of the beauty of the campus:
I love the row of crape myrtles that line the walk. They bloom twice a year and are really beautiful in full bloom. The next shot is from roughly the same area but just up the hill a bit; I love all of the big old moss-draped trees on campus:
Very nice, right?
When you first enter the building, you immediately notice the tremendous change -- especially in the four entrances that directly bring you into the lobby of Charles Winter Wood Theatre. This next picture shows the interior view of the north entrance which looks toward Gore Education Center, Sunshine Manor, and the Black Archives. Beyond those buildings are the School of Business and Industry, and absolutely positively the best view of our State Capitol from the proverbial "highest hill" in town:
For those familiar with the building, there had been a low ceiling in this lobby and an overwhelming sense of drabness. Unless you knew there was a theatre attached to the building, nothing really distinguished the space.
Not now.
An openness now permeates the lobby; note the ability to look up and see the second floor. Additionally, a big chandelier will be installed in September in the center of the open space and will serve to further signify the theatre lobby.
In the next photo, an eastern and a southeastern entrance into the lobby are shown. Again, note how much openness and exterior light has been added to the lobby:
Remember, there used to be a low ceiling. In the above picture, you're standing directly in front of the entrances to Charles Winter Wood Theatre. One of the two new entrances into the theatre is shown below:
Between the two entrances into the theatre now sits the control booth (which had been quite awkward to get to up on the second floor) with an array of 21st century technology capabilities befitting a program that has produced Tony Award winners, film and television actors, and a multitude of arts educators and other proud graduates. This photo of the rear of the theatre better paints the picture:
I'll stop there, ladies and gentlemen. Full disclosure: I have a particular interest in this construction job because my wife served as the project lead for the College of Arts and Sciences. As Director of Theatre, she clearly was interested in ensuring that Charles Winter Wood was properly refurbished but she extended that interest to the entirety of the building. Obviously, I think she did a damn good job.
In fact, they've done fantastic things on each floor of the four-story hall and I wouldn't be surprised if this is one of the best (if not the best) renovation jobs we've ever seen at one of our state universities. Relative to what many of those faculty members had prior to this renovation (jam-packed together like out-of-favor graduate students in cramped spaces without a dedicated office and nothing more than a small desk and computer terminal), there's no doubt this is a first-rate modification that was long overdue.
Each faculty member now has an office they can call their own complete with an ample desk and computer terminal. So-called "smart" classrooms and labs are placed throughout the building and the theatre itself is a high-tech teaching lab. The administration of the College of Arts and Sciences now has a dedicated suite of offices that is appropriate for such a fundamentally important college. And the Essential Theatre now has a representative space that is quite likely the best among all historically black colleges or universities in America.
Well done, FAMU, well done. Those state dollars were long in coming but when they did finally arrive, you made great use of them.
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