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Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse Begins Construction of Its New Green Performance Space, School and Café in Downtown Berkeley

Berkeley, CA (PRWEB) February 4, 2008 -- The Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, the longest-established full-time folk and traditional music venue west of the Mississippi River, has started renovation of a 70-year-old building in Berkeley's Downtown Arts District, transforming it into its new, 18,000-square-foot green performing arts and teaching facility.

The nonprofit organization's new home at 2020 Addison Street, slated to open in early 2009, will have a 440-seat listening room, double the capacity of its existing venue. The plans also include an additional performance space seating 60-70 people, a state-of-the-art sound system, a café, and six classrooms. The all-ages, family-friendly operation plans to expand its music education program, offering workshops, lessons, and master classes.

The Freight & Salvage, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, will continue to offer the rich variety of music for which it has become famous.

"The Freight has been an integral part of the arts community of the Bay Area since 1968," said Executive Director Steve Baker. "The new facility is a testament to the thousands of people who value folk music and want to help ensure its future. The performance spaces and classrooms, in a new, green building in the heart of the Downtown Arts District, give us the opportunity to bring the music to a much greater audience."

A Little Freight History

In 1968, when the Freight started presenting music, the Berkeley scene was characterized by a free-wheeling mix of anti-establishment politics, radical lifestyle experimentation, and struggles for racial and gender equality.

Country Joe & The Fish, Asleep at the Wheel, Lightnin' Hopkins, R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders, Brownie McGee, Utah Phillips, and the Cleanliness & Godliness Skiffle Band are just a few of the artists who contributed to and were nurtured by this cultural milieu. Performance venues including the Odyssey, the Cabale, the Jabberwock, and New Orleans House all had periods of glory.

Today, the Freight & Salvage is the only remaining venue that continues to reflect those heady times. One of the country's few full-time folk and traditional music presenters, the Freight's listening-room atmosphere, the quality and cultural diversity of the performances, and the broad audience make it unique well beyond the San Francisco Bay Area.

The organization is world-famous for its presentations of folk, Americana, bluegrass, Celtic, blues, jazz, and Hawaiian artists, and also offers a rich and diverse program of world music. Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Odetta, Alison Krauss, Taj Mahal, Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys, Shawn Colvin, David Grisman, Rev. Gary Davis, Mance Lipscomb, David Bromberg, Malvina Reynolds, Dar Williams, Nickel Creek, and the Persuasions are among the artists who have performed at the Freight.

With steadily growing audiences, a revitalized demand for folk and traditional music, and a need for educational programming, the Freight's staff and board of directors began making plans in 1999 to build a new home. With help from the City of Berkeley and the Freight's friends and supporters, the nonprofit organization purchased the downtown property in 2000.

About the Freight's New Home:

The design and construction team is following rigorous guidelines for achieving LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for the Freight's new facility. Work crews are now busy at the new home site, carefully dismantling the building and salvaging materials for reuse and recycling. At the same time, the organization has made every effort to preserve the warmth and special qualities that the Freight's audiences love about the current facility.

From Addison Street, Freight patrons will enter a café and lobby space that will double as an additional performance room. Located above the café/lobby, in the mezzanine, will be classrooms, offices, and additional restrooms. The main listening room, situated toward the rear on the first floor, will be open to the second story, crowned by an open, steel-truss roof. Designed to maintain the Freight's welcoming, intimate atmosphere, the listening room offers flexible seating options, with no seat farther than 58 feet from its thrust stage. Meyer Sound of Berkeley, which manufactures professional audio equipment, is providing a new state-of-the-art sound system.

While the renovation will radically alter the interior of the former downtown auto repair shop, the design retains its façade and immediately adjoining interior space, preserving the building's essential character. Emblematic of the environmentally-friendly renovation, the new front entry incorporates the existing timber roof joists, and the wood sheathing will be reused on the walls.

The Berkeley-based architecture firm of Marcy Wong & Donn Logan designed the new facility. "We've worked hard to maintain the friendly, club-like environment of the Freight. It's part of their culture," said architect Donn Logan. "We've designed the performance space to enhance sightlines and optimize sound quality. We also wanted to create a comfortable place for the audience to socialize before and after the performances."

The Freight's new building will have Berkeley's first "living roof" of California native plants, according to Logan. In addition to its aesthetic benefits, the living roof provides open space and habitat for birds and other wildlife. It also acts as an insulation layer, trapping heat, cool air, and sound.

The Freight's new home in Berkeley's Downtown Arts District is directly across Addison Street from the Berkeley Repertory and Aurora theaters and the Jazzschool. The new facility is one block from Berkeley High School, one block from BART and AC Transit, and a few blocks from the University of California.

With the construction work moving forward, the organization is committed to raising the remaining $3.5 million it needs to completely fund the $11.3 million project. Musician Danny Carnahan and investor Warren Hellman, the force behind the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, are co-chairs of the New Home Campaign, which has raised $7.8 million to date, including a $1 million grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in 2006 and a $1.161 million grant from the California Cultural and Historical Endowment in 2007.

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