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Honoring the past to create a new kind of theatre showtime.
As more businesses, these days, move away from malls and return to downtowns, there has been a resurgence in historic theatre restorations, particularly when it comes to marquees.
Eric Larsen and his company, Empire Architectural (ernpirearchitectural.com) of Midland, Michigan, recently designed and fabricated the most "architecturally detailed" theatre marquee ever built-an upgrade for the Temple Theatre.
Their work here featured a recreation of its original wood-carved blade (its tip towering sixty-four feet above the pavement), a unique three-tier marquee with light bulbs chasing up the track to the top of the crown, 700 flashing LED bulbs and strip lighting, and dual 6-by-18-foot Daktronics EMC displays (replacing hand-placed letters).
The Temple Theatre is a long-time fixture in downtown Saginaw, Michigan. This 2,500-seat facility opened back in 1927, and today, it is a refurbished one-theatre-fits-all venue that hosts a variety of events (concerts, ballets, classic movie screenings, etc.).
The theatre marquee has experienced quite a history.
The original iteration featured a "trolley car" (box marquee) design, but this was removed in 1960, along with the blade portion, due to a woodpecker infestation. (Talk about the need for bird deterrent!)
It was replaced with an at-the-time "modern" wedge marquee. (Note: The wedge design was more popular then, thanks to the increase in automobiles and traffic flowing faster.)
Owners contacted Larsen soon after he received the International Sign Association's Historic/Traditional Award for his renovation work at the State Theatre in Bay City, Michigan. They yearned to return their marquee to the thrilling days of yesteryear as an architectural wonder harkening back to its original, ornate hand-carved design.
Somewhere in Time
For Larsen, owner and lead designer at Empire Architectural, theatre marquees are his passion.
He has even modeled his business to specialize in build of historic theatre marquees (and other unique signs and sculptures). "These are chances for me to create 'art' while bringing back the old-school ways of our industry," he says.
Working his way, since hand-lettering at the age of twelve, through different sign companies as a designer, fabricator, installer, salesman, and service technician, Larsen also became entranced with architecture-particularly stonemason cathedrals.
He self-taught himself the technology and mathematics behind how these structures were...