Richmond, Va., January 7, 2025 – The Byrd Theatre Foundation, working with general contractor Daniel and Company, has commenced replacing the historic seats in the balcony on January 2, 2025. Electricians from Harris Electric began the work by disconnecting the lights in the end aisle standards. This was followed by the team from Junk Shuttle removing the 1928 end aisle standards, which have been shipped by Delta Graphics to Irwin Seating Company to be restored for reinstallation with the new seats to maintain the original look of the auditorium. The team then started removing all the existing seat backs and bottoms for recycling, where possible.
David Voelkel, the Foundation’s Director of Historic Preservation and Chief Curator, was able to preserve a portion of the fabric from the seatbacks, dating back to 1928, for possible use in unrelated future historical preservation and educational projects. After the seat cushions, the team was able to remove all the cast iron middle supports of the existing seats to recycle. Once the old seats had been completely removed, the Junk Shuttle team did a final clean-up to prepare for the next steps: patching the existing concrete and sanding for the epoxy finish, which will match the main auditorium work of 2017.
The new seats will be wider than the original 19” seats and are currently manufactured by Irwin Seating Company. These updated seats are designed to match the completed center section of the main auditorium and are expected to arrive in mid-March 2025. The renovated 1928 end aisle standards will be shipped back to us and should arrive by mid-March as well. The installation of seats will commence as soon as the new seats and end aisle standards return to the Theatre. If there are no contractor or vendor delays, the project is expected to be completed by the end of March.
