The good old Queen Theatre ornamentation still holds out on the south side wall, interspersed with the glass blocks.

This shot of the grand stairway gives you a look at the huge movable gallery wall on the second floor peeping through at the top.

The second floor gallery – you can see the progress made on smoothing out the movable gallery wall since last week.

The community room nears completion.

Looking from the mezzanine down to the second floor.

This wide shot of the second floor shows the movable wall to the left, the top of the grand stairway and the community room entrance.

One of the excellent ideas from the designers—bench seating along the side walls of the rooftop theater area.

Here are the glass blocks and their metal housings being readied for insertion to the outer walls.

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Click here for renderings of the finished building and to make a donation to the Arthouse Capital Campaign.

Here’s the big deal—in the space of a week, the massive movable wall in the main gallery on the second floor has been transformed from a steel frame to a smoothed out set of surfaces. Here you see a skilled craftsman doing the taping and floating on its finish. Very soon, you will be standing in air conditioned comfort, seeing fine artwork on this wall.

I took one straight-on shot on the big wall from the east side looking west.

Work on the rooftop is proceeding at a rapid pace. Craftsmen are doing meticulous finish on all the wood. And the mechanical room behind the screen area is about finished.

Here you see the skylight sections that will bring natural light to the second floor.

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Click here for renderings of the finished building and to make a donation to the Arthouse Capital Campaign.

As for the roof, I could not get up to it when I was there—on the back stair the way was blocked by a scaffold. In the front one, workers were installing siding and I didn’t want to interrupt them. We’ll get some roof shots next week.

Elaborate scaffolding has been erected to enable workers to do the final finish on the south wall.

The downstairs group of offices has been sheetrocked out. The offices are now close to final finish.

What would a building be without restrooms? Here you see the ladies room with the stalls enclosed.

This is the big deal—here is a shot of the second floor, main gallery’s moving wall now on its rails. This shot is from the back looking towards the front.

Another shot of the installed gallery wall—looking front to back. Very impressive!

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This shot of the south side today shows the massive silver mechanical unit behind the movie screen.

This photo from the mezzanine level looking down on the main gallery space shows the huge sliding wall that will soon be in place.

Another shot of the main gallery area.

Tile work continues in the restrooms.

The roof finish out is continuing – here is another view of the mechanical unit behind the screen.

Looking east on the roof—note the superb finish out on the side walls.

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This shot doesn’t begin to do the front entryway justice, but you can see how it is shaping up. Soon, regular streams of art lovers will be coming through this entry area and getting a full-on look at the grand staircase.

Here is the latest view of the second floor gallery, with the back and north side walls sheetrocked.

This shot shows how the community room looks now (facing east toward Congress Avenue) with an additional inner wall up and sheetrocked.

Workers are finishing the east and south walls of the rooftop deck.

A look at the rooftop screening area which in a few months will be a magnificent new focal point for downtown Austin art and cinema lovers.

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It seems like the work crews are ramping up progress at an exponential rate and that late August deadline is looking totally within reach.

The south wall is getting closer to having its final skin, complete with all the lights.

I walked around into the back alley and took a shot of the north wall which is finished. You can visualize this finish on the south wall on Seventh, surrounding the glass blocks as they protrude from the surface.

This is the community room on the second floor, facing east towards Congress Avenue. The front as you see it here to the left will be all windows. The south side, on the right, will be partially covered by the Arthouse sign.

The tile work has been done in the second floor restrooms.

The bright circles you see at the top here are skylights which pipe brightness into one of the mezzanine studios.

This is a view from the mezzanine looking down onto the second floor gallery. On the left, you see the massive movable gallery wall which will eventually be hung from the ceiling.

Following up on the last shot, here you see the green steel support beams in the ceiling for the movable wall.

A workman installing the side wall for the rooftop.

The entire rooftop screen area is shaping up. From this vantage point, you see the screen, the side walls and the rooftop. The openings for light sections in the decking are visible.

A closer shot of the south side wall for the movie seating area.

The skylight will illuminate the Ipe grand staircase below.

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On the second floor, workers have framed in the community room (to the right of the stair) and the drywall to the north. Just beyond where the latter stands now will be a small seating area and rear entrance to the community room itself.

Reaching the roof deck by stair, one is greeted now with an expansive surface of precisely cut ipe (or ironwood) that closely resembles the finished product. Railing has been installed around the edges, and ipe paneling is being extended to cover the “arms” that reach out into the space from either side of the screening platform itself (currently framed in steel).

In this image, the care and precision demonstrated by the crews is apparent. Slotted intermittently throughout the deck, these wells will house lighting elements beneath thick glass panels in the floor.

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Here you see workers applying the final sheeting, which has been cut to fit the glass blocks that perforate the skin of the building throughout.

Precision work is happening in other places as well. This image shows the framework for the slotted skylight, which will sit directly above the grand staircase and flood the galleries with light.

On the rooftop crews are completing the ipe decking and preparing to build that same hardwood into the benches, the screen, and the skylights. Look for hundreds of bright green and yellow chairs at screenings and events this Fall!

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This is the sweet shot from today. That IPE decking is being installed at a rapid rate. The entire deck should be done by the end of next week, barring big rains. Also, the skylight glass is on site and the crews will be putting it in this week.

Here you see some of the steel that has been installed at the ground floor entrance to the lobby and the grand staircase.

Not the most exciting photo, but you can see the sheetrock that has been installed in the second floor restrooms below the mezzanine studios.

A good amount of sheathing has been put up outside on the south wall.

By the way, I will be out of town on vacation for the next two weeks – so the next couple of posts will be done by Ben Slade from Arthouse.

Until next time…

This is huge. And yes, it is. Here you see the framework for the motorized moveable gallery wall on the second floor. When this wall is in place, the curator can move it back and forth to suit the needs of each particular exhibition.

Big doings on the roof. Stacks of IPE deck flooring planks are ready for installation. When this roof surface is done, it will be unlike anything in town. Or perhaps in this world — or any other!

More ac/heating vents are ready to go downstairs.

The south exterior wall is fully shimmed and leveled for finish out.

Arthouse Board President Julie Thornton displays her acrobatic skills.

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