Athens, TX - Texan Theater renovation continues

posted by ThrHistoricalSociety on November 11, 2016 at 6:55 am

From The Athens Review: A clean-up, preliminary to construction at the Texan Theater location is underway this week.

Athens Community Development Manager Thanasis “Nasi” Kombos said the current work is clean-up.

“They’re doing some clean-up inside the theater,” Kombos said. “They’ll be wrapping up around the middle part of next week.”

It will be after the first of the year before any construction begins on the project.

“The architect is working right now on the construction documents, which are anticipated to be completed at the end of January,” Kombos said. “Assuming that funding is secured for the project, at that point, I would anticipate that we will be moving with construction.”

David Chase of ArchiTexas told the Athens City Council in October construction of the project should last another nine months, making completion of the theater about a year away.

The remaining structure of the theater, built in the 1940s, will be part of a new venue. But once patrons walk past the restored Texan sign, the venue will be quite different from the movie theater where a couple of generations of Athens area residents went for entertainment.

The original Texan Theater had a sloping floor. The new venue will have a flat floor to make it more for multi-purpose use. The type of roof chosen was an enclosed overlapping structure. A mezzanine section will be located above the restrooms. Once imagined as an outdoor venue, it will now be enclosed and air conditioned.

The south side of the building, where the neon Texan sign was located, will still be the main entry, but access will be possible from the back. The back masonry wall will be taken down, and replaced by a glass wall. A roll-up door will be located at the back.

Story link: http://www.athensreview.com/news/local_news/texan-theater-renovation-continues/article_7496cbea-a6dc-11e6-9cee-573a92674343.html

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