October 27th, 2008

What a year! We've made some incredible progress. We were able to participate as a host venue to this year's Infringement Festival, for which we received some very dedicated and hard-working volunteers, assembled mostly with the help of Curt Rotterdam. Our music venue is operational, thanks in big part to Jesse Rejewski of JR Audio providing our sound, lighting, and electrical needs. We have a gallery space, and our shows have been organized under the stewardship of Jax Deluca. Much construction has been done to revitalize the building, making it safe, and enhancing its functionality, which couldn't have been done without the support of Nic Garelick and Brian Sharp, among many others including: Frank Coppola, Alex Lohr, Kim Worpek, Curt Rotterdam, Jax Deluca, Liz Durand, Joseph Mulhollen, Deerock, Sparky, Pat Sears, Zack and Zack from Peanut Brittle, David Scibran, my parents Bob and Karen Lohr, and several more. This has been a huge undertaking, and recognition has to go to all who have helped out. We now also have an internet sponsor in Lindsey "Z" Briggs of PBC Productions, which is allowing me to update our progress at the moment. There's just too many people to thank at this point.

What we have now is a music venue with a capacity of about 100 people (although there were comfortably almost 200 at our last show); a gallery with about 80' of usable wall space (also the location of our bathroom with fully functioning fixtures, and a mostly in-tune piano); flex space for housing installations, venue overflow, and showroom where we'll be attempting to sell the random leftover contents of the building as well as new artistic creations from the burnwood family and area artists; a small, but functional woodshop; and some livable space.

We've been working on projects apart from the burnwood complex itself, too. Prometheus 233 keeps us pretty busy doing set design and fabrication for many of their photo shoots and other studio needs. Recently, we've been working alongside David King of DK Design assisting with the fabrication of sets at the Kavinoky Theatre, as well as with the construction of a replica 4th century Roman merchant ship for the upcoming feature film "Nicolas of Myra". Squeaky Wheel hired us on to design and build for them a custom work counter/ storage unit for their main office/ equipment rental room. We've also been delighted to host three local horror movie productions with Red Scream Films, but the architecture and contents of the building already made perfect sets, so our involvement was pretty limited.

So what does the future hold for Burnwood?
We're looking into getting 501c3 status as a non-profit arts organization. With that, we'll be able to expand the shops and offer hands-on skills training in carpentry/ woodworking, welding/ metalwork, painting and drawing, offering classes and community workshops. Our goal is to be able to rent out shop time to members and the general public (after completing safety training, and proper tool use instructions) to work on projects of their own that they don't have the facilities for, as well as providing technical support and construction advice. It's possible that we may rent out tools, too, but more like a library than say, the Home Depot model.

The music venue, although already amazing, can be expanded and made even better. We're going into winter hibernation mode now, but we'll start booking shows again in the spring. The gallery can use fresher walls, or at least hanging rails on the masonry walls. We'll be putting out some calls for work before spring hits, and offering some very cutting edge exhibits. The showroom will be filled with old furniture and other craftworks this winter as an attempt to clean out more space for shops, items will be for sale by appointment or online for now.

The back building will need a new roof, and after that's done, it can be rehabbed and made into live/work lofts. That's on top of all the other construction projects that are a necessary part of owning and rehabbing an historical structure in a very weather-rich city like Buffalo.

Updates should occur with more frequency and detail from here on in.

August 12th, 2007

More of the same, really. Constant cleaning, getting some good stuff done only to be taken aback by the mountain of pending work yet to do. It's a process, making progress. Power is on, has been on for a few weeks. No water yet, but soon...

May 12th, 2007

Getting the place cleaned up. Hosted one cleaning party so far, and had way too much fun, a big thanks to all who came out.

We're working on getting the power back on, and plumbing run for at least a couple bathrooms before hosting any significant events.

Always looking for volunteers who don't mind getting a little dirty, some pay available for skilled workers, especially for electrical and plumbing, but also masons and roofers.

This place is going to be awesome.

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