The Metropolitan Opera House

Scaffolding the Metropolitan Opera House, Philadelphia, PA

The Metropolitan Opera House or Met located at 858 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia (yes, Philly has a Metropolitan – not just NY) is undergoing a $56 Million restoration as a new Live Nation concert venue.

The large building that takes up a full city block at Broad and Poplar Streets is being converted into a 3,500 person venue. The main theater will be transformed for seated and standing-only general-admission concerts. Superior Scaffold was brought in by GC, Domus, Inc. to provide access to the entire interior and exterior of the building. And what an enormous job this is. This gigantic theater was a real challenge because of the slope elevation where the seats and walkways go. We had to get multiple restoration crews to the ceiling and all sides of the theater.

To do that we used system scaffold that was 120 feet wide by 162 feet long with a deck that sat just below the ceiling at approximately 75 feet high. We also provided work decks at every 6’6” level to touch the exterior walls. We had two stair towers, one on each side, to give everyone access to their working position. The equipment was loaded in from access doors near the stage and carted into place where crews then erected the scaffold. To assist, we enlisted the help of a 1000 pound BetaMax Maxial track or ladder material hoist. This enormous scaffold got painting, masonry, carpenter crews, and more up the to the ornate ceiling where they could do their work.

We also installed scaffold on three sides of the building and debris netted them in for safety.