Folks who will use them weigh in on event spaces
On Dec. 10, Little Rock voters will accept or reject a roughly $70 million renovation of the city’s favorite neo-classical performance space, Robinson Center. The Advertising and Promotion Commission’s elevator pitch — which always begins “This is an existing tax, not a new one” — has rightfully focused on the planned improvements to the hall, but from my perch high above the city’s special events circuit, what interests me is the proposed 500-seat ballroom.
Artists’ renderings make it look a lot like the Clinton Presidential Center’s Great Hall. That’s no wonder: Two of the firms involved in the Robinson project — Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects and Ennead Architects (formerly Polshek Partnership) — worked on the presidential library, too. The new event space would overlook the Arkansas River the way the Great Hall overlooks Interstate 30. Not coincidentally, this renovation and the Broadway Bridge construction overlap.
A month out from the election, I want to avoid adding so much as my steamy breath to the scales, but I did ask Convention and Visitor’s Bureau president Gretchen Hall if there’s evidence that the city’s existing event spaces aren’t meeting the needs of the social calendar.
Two years ago the commission contracted with a facility space consultant, who did a 200-plus-page report. The analysis didn’t graph facilities and event dollars within Little Rock. It asked, how will Little Rock position itself in relation to similar regional hubs, competing to attract similar events?
The ballroom is, in short, an aspirational solution.
So I asked about three dozen socialites, event planners and coordinators for their thoughts (and more than half responded), not just on whether the city could use a new elegant space for up to 500, but just how important is “elegant” anyway? How about cost (of using the space)? Capacity?
“Yes, there is for sure a lack of good event space in town,” says Susan Altrui, who’s marketing and development director at the city zoo and heavily involved in the film community here.
A few echoed Altrui. Most, though, said there seems to be an adequate number of venues, but not for events welcoming about 700 folks or more. Then it’s the Statehouse Convention Center’s Wally Allen Ballroom or convention spaces.
Mallory Van Dover with Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families touched on a couple of considerations when she said, “Yes, I think we’re missing midsize … venues, particularly those that provide ample parking.”
“Our Soup Sunday event has been held at the Embassy Suites for years. While that is great space, we have clearly outgrown that venue. Unfortunately, the next bigger option” — The Metroplex — “is substantially more expensive. … It will be a risky financial move to make, but we need to change the venue for sure.”
Does the space itself matter?
“Professionally speaking, event spaces are blank slates — most of them are neutral boxes by intentional design,” says event planner Todd Bagwell.
However, some pick ornate, even spiritual places, because of and not in spite of it. One of Bagwell’s New York clients maintains her membership at a Manhattan Episcopal church strictly because it’s the most beautiful sacred space in the city — she is not Episcopalian. Locally, he says, there are parents who wouldn’t dream of having their daughters’ weddings anywhere but the Country Club of Little Rock.
There are also large nonprofits, like the University of Arkansas at Little Rock or any of the three hospitals in town, who host tony events on campus, and not just because the space is free but because it spotlights their facilities. Perhaps the most immediate example, says Stacey Hall, an aide to Gov. Mike Beebe who has helped organize large events herself, is the annual Miracle Ball fundraiser inside the Children’s Hall at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
Is cost the primary concern? Capacity? Elegance? Cost. Camie Powell, who last month helped orchestrate a fundraiser for Special Olympics at Next Level Events, says, “Cost is our main concern, but we are not willing to risk the reputation of our brand … for a ‘cheap’ venue.”
And no fundraiser will refuse to pay Wally Allen Ballroom prices if they can pull in the bodies to fill it. In other words, cost is the main concern after capacity has been achieved.
Then there are secondary considerations, such as parking.
“I’ve served on committees that have rejected a facility because the walk to and from the entrance was too far for women to walk in heels,” Altrui says.
None of the respondents voted elegance tops; most thought it either too ethereal to quantify or too easy to manufacture.
Is it better to be classy and elegant, or memorable?
Almost everyone said memorable, or added “fun.” Bagwell said that what people mean by elegance is actually “pretty,” and then, yes, pretty.
Only two, Yvette Parker, formerly of Pulaski Technical College, now Ben E. Keith, and Eileen Sotomora, Woman-of-the-Year-elect, sided with elegance, though Parker admitted that five months after this year’s Diamond Chefs competition, which witnessed the butchering of live catfish on stage in the name of haute cuisine, “people are still talking about it.”
Cindy Murphy — philanthropist, good-cause “connector,” queen of the social calendar — said “memorable” is subjective. She and husband Chip chaired Opus XX for the symphony. That event — and here we come full circle — was at Robinson Music Hall, and involved suspending a dining floor over much of the lowest half of the orchestra seats.
“Now that’s one a lot of people will never forget,” she said, but generally, “I don’t think ‘memorable’ applies to the ‘Gala Regulars’ as we attend so many, and first-timers will remember it as an exciting opportunity to personally attend one of the major galas” regardless.
If the Robinson renovation is acceptable to voters and the new ballroom comes to fruition, it will be a very modern, very accommodating event space with a memorable view, adjacent the city’s chief performance auditorium, and that will create some buzz. Buzz, of course, is the sound of busy bees and healthy hives.