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Prairie Architects, Inc. |
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Karl King Bandshell Fort Dodge, Iowa |
Karl L. King Bandshell, as originally designed and constructed, seated 3000 persons on wood plank benches supported on precast concrete brackets. They were arranged in straight rows with a center aisle, only allocating 16-inches per seat. Seating rows where set back 30-feet from the stage and fountain, providing a grassed apron across the front of the performance area. The park road entered along the north side of the seating area, continued through the parkland behind the Bandshell, and re-emerged at the south side of the seating area as an unpaved track. This formed a continuous loop around the Bandshell. Original seating was replaced in the 1960's with extruded aluminum plank benches. The site grades were altered at that time to provide sloped seating for approximately 700 persons, with seating for larger attractions supplemented by lawn chairs and blankets on the field beyond the formal seating area. With the natural slope of the land falling away towards the street at the east -- approximately 30-inches from the ground in front of the fountain -- the raised area required to create the sloped seating arrangement further exacerbated the site lines from the field, especially when people stand up near the back of the formal seating area. Prairie Architects has proposed a concrete slab footprint that echoes the original layout. The green area at the front of the stage has been restored and the seating slab has been configured to reflect the original geometry of the ground plane. Slope has been reduced to the minimum required for drainage. Seating has been reduced to 600 seat capacity, organized into two sections that are bifurcated by a single 7-foot wide center aisle. The radiused rows allow for more comfortable viewing of the stage. The front row seat count reflects the geometry of the layout originally used by Kamphoefner. Side aisles are 60-inches wide, with a front apron of 10-feet and a rear apron of 15-feet. Ganged individual seats will replace the aluminum benches, providing more individual comfort. They have been specified in a soft gray color that is fundamentally compatible with the white architecture of the Bandshell, which is experienced as a composition of directly lit white moderated in gradations of gray shadow. The rear field will be gently graded to drain to the existing streets, while maintaining the elevations at the existing historical flagpole. |
Site Planning and Seating |
Prairie Architects, Inc. -- 103 South Third Street -- Fairfield, Iowa 52556 |