Tour of God's House

As I mentioned before, after the Sabbath Shane Granger kindly agreed to take some of us on a tour of the Auditorium. It was fascinating to learn the stories behind many of the  structures and decor and to see how God was so involved in every detail.

Swans in Flight
The swans sit in a 120x30ft pool of holding 40,000 gallons of water. As you may know it can get pretty windy at HQ, so the jets that flow on to the swans are controlled by wind meter. When the wind  gets too strong the water is automatically turned off to prevent the water spraying over visitors!

If you visit or see pictures of the swans you will notice that their is some green coloring on the top swan. This is due to oxidation of the metal. The lower swans are protected from this by additives in the water but since the water doesn't reach that high the top swan has been affected. This will be rectified soon when the swans are stripped and coatings applied which will protect it from future oxidation.

A fascinating detail is that the pool was size was designed before the we knew we would purchase the swans. When Mr Flurry visited Big Sandy they measured the pool there and found that our pool was almost exactly the same size - a perfect fit for the swans to be at HQ without any alteration to the existing plans.

Marble
When the Travertine marble outside the Auditorium was delivered the vendor was very excited when he realized that the church was name Philadelphia because apparently the marble came from a quarry very close the the ancient city of Philadelphia mentioned in Rev 3.

Another area where God granted us favor was in obtaining the Emperador marble that covers the internal pillars between the wood in the foyer of the Auditorium. Our requirement was for darker marble than is usually requested so it turned out that our supplier obtained a shipment of the darker which we were able to get at considerable less cost because most customers want a lighter color.

Gold Lettering
You can read the story of how we obtained the letters from the Ambassador Auditorium here. Another blessing was that we originally were planning to get the brass letters lacquered but since that process is time consuming the vendor offered us to gold plate them with 24ct instead for free - we just paid the cost of polishing.

Elevator Chandelier
There is a chandelier in the lobby in front of the elevator. This was another blessing. Along that area there are recessed lights in the ceiling however, they found that in that one spot it was too dark. As it happened, Mr Granger found out that we had received an extra chandelier that we did not order. When he inquired of the vendor he was informed that this was a prototype and that we could keep it for free. It was a perfect fit for the space being smaller than the main chandeliers.

Star Dressing Rooms
We were shown the area where the performers prepare before going on stage. When Mr Granger was visiting other performing arts venues he was surprised to find out that the backstage area is pretty spartan for the artists, not luxurious at all. At Armstrong Auditorium the facilities are of a very high standard which is surprises and delights artists. They have 5 star hotel-like accommodation with extra tall closet for long gowns, private shower and monitor so they can see what is happening on stage. This provides with with a relaxing, calm area to be able to give their best performance. From the kitchen, the performers are provided with a first class meal.

Auditorium Backstage
We were able to go backstage and see the high-tech equipment used to control all the logistics of a performance. Also the Mr Granger explained about the role of the varied panelling in the ceiling to generate the best acoustics. To keep the two Steinways in optimal condition, they are stored off stage in a special acclimated room.