![]() ![]() Regardless of the style, the quality of the output is always top-notch, and since 2006, I’ve managed to highlight many of their albums. This independent German label really knows how to curate its releases that span a variety of genres, ranging from ambient to experimental, drone to jazz, and contemporary classical. It’s time that I check in with Denovali once again. I guess it was after the last election new officers were sworn in, new committees were formed and one of was a Social Committee.Release: An Excellent Spiritual Serviceman Among the activities suggested was a Pizza Friday. I think I piped up with one of my sarcastic remarks like “Not until we get a mirror ball in the boardroom.” Me and my big mouth! The next thing I knew, a Building Committee was born and I volunteered as Chairperson. There was a great desire to move to a different building where we could host meetings, hold larger classes and offer more parking. We enlisted the help of Chris Baer (a real estate agent at Colliers and an agent for many other locals) to assess the worth of our building and show us properties that fit our requirements. We promptly found that a new building was out of our reach so the focus shifted to upgrading the building we currently own. Our sad old offices needed some serious TLC. ![]() We enlisted Chris to help us decide which upgrades would most improve the resale value. Patrushkha Mierzwa (former Board member and boom operator) and Laurie Baer (design consultant) put together designs and ideas that inspired us in making our pig of a building into a silk purse. The Building Committee agreed that the design should reflect the creativity, competency and classiness of the 695 membership. It should be welcoming, open, inclusive and reflect a positive, forward-thinking atmosphere. With that idea in mind, a coherent plan was formulated with the downstairs reflecting our history and saluting the membership. The journey upstairs could give a nod to the past and then launch you into the future. To heck with just resale value, we wanted to have a place to be proud of until that day when relocating becomes a reality. FORMING A PLANīefore we could begin anything, we had to form a plan and a budget and set our priorities. We spent many hours with due diligence research, choosing materials and gathering bids from contractors. There were trips to other locals for inspiration. It was hard to know when to include the entire committee because the project was so time-consuming and involved so much legwork. With every sample brought in, new ideas emerged. It became a very fluid process and an enormous amount of faith and trust was required by all to pull it all off. After working through stacks of ideas and suggestions, the concept was taking shape. The staff culled through all boxes and purged office furniture that no longer rendered itself useful. ![]() Spaces were arranged to be more efficient. We were able to keep, update and repurpose many of our case goods and cabinets, but the staff desks and chairs had to go.
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