To see a video of band members talking about the issue, click here.
Planning for the new LSU Marching Band Hall will begin at the end of the month.Tiger Band has officially raised its share of the $10 million required to start construction on a new facility — the all-inclusive LSU Marching Band Hall — before the Aug. 30 due date. The band raised $1.4 million in gifts and pledges from private donors, and the Athletic Department has pledged $4.5 million from ticket revenue. The state has appointed Performance Architecture, an architectural firm based in New Orleans that specialized in music performance, to design the building. The project should take about two years.The plans, anticipated to take 12 months, will begin within the next 30 days with a bid date in fall 2009, said Emmett David, director of facility development. He said the construction should take between 12 and 14 months.”If we’re able to do it the way we would like to do it, which is the complete building with large enough facilities for every part of our program, it should be something that everybody here can be proud of,” Board Director Frank Wickes said.The existing, hurriedly constructed band hall can no longer fit the 325 band members. It was built in 1959 after a fire consumed its predecessor a year earlier.”It was built for a band of 140 in 1959,” Wickes said. “The day it opened, it was too small because there were 180 in the band.”Music Director Steven Covington said Tiger Band is an attraction to the University for high school students, and “it does not reflect well right now on the University as far as recruiting goes.”Wickes credits System President John Lombardi, and the Athletic Department for helping to raise funding the band directors may not have been able to raise.”The big push came when John Lombardi came on as president of the System,” he said. “He got involved with this project because he was instrumental in the release of Chancellor O’Keefe.”—-Contact Lindsey Meaux at [email protected]