The old Park City High School, which is now the Park City Library, was built in 1928. 75 years later, in 2003, the city replaced the original seats in its auditorium. Two decades later, they’re about to be replaced again next spring. But what they’ll be replaced with remains to be seen.
Park City Film is a local non-profit that operates out of that building and uses the auditorium for film showings. Executive Director Katy Wang says her organization been working on the seat upgrade over for five years.
“Right now, what we're doing is we're looking at some fabric samples, and then we'll have some sample seats made up so people can do what they call the sit test and check out the lumbar support, look at some of the color options,” Wang Said.” And then just kind of get some feedback from the community about what seats they might like to have in the theater.”
Wang says they’re working with an architecture firm to redesign the sight lines in the theater, so the room’s layout will be different, and the new seats will be more comfortable. But that’s about all they can do. In order to offer more leg room, Wang says they would have to redo the entire floor - which would be a much bigger operation.
“We can't have you know, stadium seating and there won't be any Barca loungers. Unfortunately, we're not quite at that level. It is an historic facility. But it will be a much, much improved experience.
Two sample seats will be brought in and available for film patrons to sit in while watching a film.
“Absolutely collecting feedback from folks as they're able to test out the seed or sit in it for the full experience and just see what they think,” Wang said. “There are a couple of different options that we're considering.”
There will be fewer seats, down to 424 from 440, but the number of wheelchair spots will increase by two.
The project will be paid for with a Summit County restaurant tax grant, Park City Municipal and money from the Utah Division of Arts and Museums.
Wang said audiences will notice is a crisp, clean, and seamless screen.
“For those of you that have been coming to Park City Film for the past six years, you may have noticed that there was an unsightly seam that was starting to appear in our previous screen, which once you saw it, you could not unsee it. So, we're very excited to have this new screen, there is no seam. There will be no seam ever.”
Getting the screen into the theater was a bit of a challenge. Wang is hopeful the new screen will last another 15 years.
