NEWS

Emens to get $5 million expansion

Seth Slabaugh
seths@muncie.gannett.com

MUNCIE — Ball State University is planning a $5 million expansion and renovation of Emens Auditorium, a venue that has united town and gown for more than half a century.

Students walk past Emens Auditorium at Ball State Wednesday afternoon.

The project will add about 12,000 square feet to the front of the building, expanding the lobby for more pre-event, intermission and post-event crowds, relocating the box office to an interior area, adding much-needed restrooms to the main floor, and also adding hospitality space, a conference room and office space.

President Paul Ferguson witnessed the lack of room firsthand on Tuesday night.

“So for example we had a book signing event last night after a distinguished speaker, and the line to get the books signed was going all the way outside to the street,” he told BSU trustees, who approved the project at a meeting on Wednesday.

“I think this will put a lot more energy in that building for the local campus and the city,” trustee Frank Hancock said.

After looking over preliminary drawings of the project, trustee Wayne Estopinal, who owns a Jeffersonville architectural firm, questioned whether it would draw enough attention.

“I would like to see (architectural consultant) MSKTD look at the facade, and look at the facade of Sursa (Performance Hall), and get other contextual clues from around it,” he said.

“I think possibly it could be a little more transparent, because the idea is, from the street we show the entrance, the excitement, the gatherings inside, and it could be a little more transparent,” he said.

He also recommended replacing the sign in front of Emens with something larger.

This artist’s rendering shows what the front of Emens Auditorium would look like after the planned $5 million expansion and renovation.

“I know we have an electronic sign out in front,” he said. “Isn’t it a small one? ... I don’t know if there is an opportunity in this project to possibly upgrade that ... I still think letting students, letting people in the community know a little more about what’s going on at Emens might increase attendance.”

Hancock agreed, saying, “You really should look into updating whatever sign is out front, because you can do all this inside, but if ... nobody knows about it ...”

Emens is the anchor of a cultural corridor that Ball State has been creating for years — Sursa Performance Hall, the expanded David Owsley Museum of Art, the Charles Brown Planetarium, the Glick Center for Glass, and the Rinard Orchid Greenhouse adjacent to Christy Woods.

Known as Emens Auditorium, its official name is Emens College-Community Auditorium, completed in 1964 at a cost of $3 million, half of which was funded by citizens of Muncie and BSU alumni.

Community leader Charlie Sursa led a fundraising campaign that collected $1.5 million to help fund the lobby expansion. BSU will fund the remainder of the cost with $3.5 million from its $36 million, non-state-supported renewal and replacement fund.

Construction is supposed to start in the summer of 2016 and take 12 months.

During a ceremony marking the auditorium’s 50th anniversary last year, Sursa said, “I can’t think of another venue in our community that’s done more to pull together the university and the community than Emens Auditorium.”

BSU Treasuer Bernie Hannon noted Emens, which seats 3,309 people, hasn’t had any major renovation since it was built. The carpet has been replaced once. So has the stage.

Performers/speakers who have appeared at the auditorium include Ronald Reagan, Simon and Garfunkel, Jose Feliciano, Stevie Wonder, George Carlin, Bill Cosby, Jerry Lewis, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Henry Kissinger, Jimmy Carter, Chris Rock and Bob Dylan.

The auditorium also has served as a location for community events such as high school graduation exercises, band concerts and dance studio recitals.

Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.