Van Wezel Opens New Season With Brand New Seats

This summer the Van Wezel replaced their 40-year-old seats (part of the original construction), paid for in part by a grant from the Selby Foundation.

The Van Wezel's brand new seats have been installed, after a lengthy selection process ensuring quality and suitability! Following a Request for Proposal, a five-person selection committee (comprised of Van Wezel staff, The Selby Foundation, and members of the community) judged each interested company, and a formal vote resulted in the selection of Seating Concepts, represented by MISSCO Contract Sales, as the chair manufacturer.

Seating Concepts' installations have worked with such reputable performing arts halls as: The Kennedy Center, Washington D.C.; Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Ft. Lauderdale; Notre Dame's DeBartolo Performing Center; Palace of Fine Arts at Mexico City. Further meetings with MISSCO were held to select fabric, finishes, and options.

The new seats are from 20" to 22" wide and are in the same layout, but by tweaking the spacing and sizes an additional 40 seats were added, many in the prime Golden Circle area. These seats are not only beautiful but are among the most comfortable on the market. The new seats designed by Seating Concepts include: all steel support systems, 4" cold molded, contoured foam padding over serpentine springs, recessed cup holders (on the rear of the seats in front of you), counterbalanced mechanism, which allows for easy operation, and carmine mahogany arm rests with aubergine fabric .The new seating will stay true to the continental seating style currently in use by the Hall. This layout is acknowledged to be the best arrangement for fixed seating, not only for sight lines and audience comfort, but especially in case of emergencies. Continental seating allows for greater space between rows than in more traditional arrangements, thus providing more leg room when seated and easier passage across rows without requiring those seated to stand.

Due to these factors, the continental seating design is the choice for the vast majority of new auditoriums being built. The continental seating arrangement not only meets all of the safety codes in the Americans with Disabilities Act, but is the preferred design. To quote from the National Network of ADA guidelines, "Consideration of the positive attributes of ‘continental' seating should be included along with all other factors in the design of fixed seating areas." In the case of emergency, evacuation continental seating is a faster means of exiting than other layouts. It allows for side exiting, with one exit for every three rows. The Van Wezel's usher corps has been trained under the guidance of the Fire Marshall in evacuation procedures using this system. In previous emergency situations, the auditorium was completely evacuated to the outside in just four minutes. Local performing arts halls which incorporate the continental seating arrangement include: Morsani Hall in Tampa's Straz Center, Orlando's Bob Carr Performing Arts Center, Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, and The King Center for the Performing Arts in Melbourne.

 

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