The closing of the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium has gone from inconvenient to alarming – Marin Independent Journal

In May 2023, when the county announced that the Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium would be closed for more than a year, officials asked the public for patience.

The 2,000-seat cultural venue, Marin’s largest theater, needed significant repairs and would be as good as new when it reopened for performances and lectures.

Now officials predict the auditorium will remain closed until 2026.

Not only does that mean an extra year of expensive repairs, but for local non-profit performing groups it means another year without the revenue that the larger venue brings in.

“They have not yet been able to meet any of their timelines,” said Tod Brody, executive director of the Marin Symphony, which has called the auditorium home for decades.

Understandably frustrated, he calls the latest delay ‘scandalous’.

That may be an exaggeration, but his frustration is justified. It is certainly very disturbing that the province’s construction experts could be so wrong, not in a few months, but in more than a year.

Organizations that rent the auditorium were originally told by the province that the venue would be closed in July 2022. That was postponed until May 2023 with the aim of reopening in October 2024.

That was bad enough for their organizations, schedules and budgets.

Then the province announced that the reopening date would have to be moved to October 2025. Then it was before the end of 2025.

According to the latest provincial report, the auditorium must remain closed until 2026.

Sure, building can be like peeling through layers. Once you start digging into a building, there are surprises. The unrecorded deviations from the blueprints by the original builders have also complicated the work.

Since the center is in the mud, it’s no surprise that extra work is needed. While officials determined the building’s foundation is sound, the ground beneath the foundation has settled, causing a host of problems, including damage to drain and sewer lines and water intrusion, causing a litany of necessary repairs – a list that is growing.

Now this project will take more than three years; At least that’s the latest prediction from the province.

The repairs began with seismic safety retrofit work, which cost the province $6.8 million. Costs increased by $15.8 million.

The province’s handling of this important public project needs public attention, including regular public updates that will help bring attention and pressure to get it done on time – and on budget.