Steve Doolittle, Downtown Development Director, visits with AQS staff Rick Loyd, Billy Schroeder, and Meredith Schroeder about the destruction taking place. Today we were given a tour of the building to see the progress being made. Here are some photos so you, too, can see what will lead to a completely renovated convention center in Paducah. Many of the areas were really destruction zones but we stepped as close as we dared to snap these photos.The City of Paducah has committed to renovate the convention center compatible with the renovation of the Executive Inn. The classrooms will be completely remodeled with new everything - from top to bottom, and we are especially grateful to have new lighting in these rooms for our workshops. New heating and air conditioning will be installed. The International Rooms will be renovated with new ceiling, lighting, wall treatments, and carpeting.
Steve Doolittle, Meredith Schroeder, AQS President; Mary Hammond, Executive Director of the Paducah/McCracken Convention & Visitors Bureau; and Terry Guill, Director of AQS Show Operations, take a look at where the planter (we always called it the moat) was removed in the lobby of the convention center. It is amazing how much space that planter took up.
The ceilings will be replaced throughout the building. Two shifts a day are working to get the building ready for reconstruction. All they left in place are the metal heat ducts as you can see in this photo. New electrical lines will be installed throughout the building. 
The upper hallway was in big time destruction mode today. Won't we all be anxious to see it all put back together?
Workers were busy ripping out wiring and heat registers. This was a pretty big mess. 
Carpeting is being ripped out of the classrooms. New ceilings and lighting will be installed in all of the classrooms.
The bathrooms have been gutted and will be brand new from top to bottom. .
Wow, can you believe all that they have torn apart so far? Keep an eye here on our Blog and we'll bring you new photos as the work progresses.
.
Can't wait until April? Well, you can see that there is a lot of work to be done, but these crews are up to the task, and the building will all be fresh and new for our 25th Anniversary Celebration. And, we'll also get to celebrate a newly renovated convention center and hotel rooms. Put on your dancing...or your track shoes and come celebrate with us.
.
Meanwhile back at the office, Cindy Carrico and Marcelle Cashon are busy working on the Registration Guide for our 25th Anniversary Celebration. It will be later in November before it is all finished. We still have a lot of information to get formatted in our software, and then it goes back to the teachers for proofing, and a final proofing in our office...then we'll get it to the printer and posted for online registration. We'll post a notice on our Web site and here on our Blog when we have a better idea of the date it will be ready.
.
Here's a little secret: 19 of the past Best of Show winners will be joining us in Paducah...and you'll be able to take classes from several of them. How great is that... to learn from some of the best!
.
Bonnie Browning
Executive Show Director
6 comments:
I'd love to sign up for classes but I don't know if I have a room!!! Any new information for all of us who lost our money to Executive Inn?
The new owners will be at the hotel soon and their first task will be to figure out the room applications.
This has been a mess for too long, and we at AQS want it resolved too. As soon as we know more, we will post it on our Web site, on this Blog, and with e-mails to our AQS members.
We are busy working on the Registration Guide for the Paducah show, and it will still be a couple of weeks before we have everything ready to begin registrations.
Stay tuned and we'll keep you apprised of progress when we know it.
Bonnie Browning
Bonnie,
Thanks for sharing the progress with all of us! It is great to know the details as the Executive Inn and Convention Center get their face lifts. What can you share about extra elevators??? That was a particular antiquainted bottle neck...... Thanks, Jan Krentz
I too am wondering what to do. I don't know if I have a room or not, and certainly don't want to book airfare until I know for sure.
Hi Jan! I took your Spiral Lone Star class in Medford Oregon back in 2003. I finally finished it!! Yay! It looks great. :)
The companies are in the final stages of the closing on the hotel...then we'll be able to give more information to those of you who have paid for rooms at the Executive Inn. It can't happen fast enough for any of us.
As to the elevators and other specific plans for the hotel, we haven't seen the final plans yet. For the 2009 show, the hotel is only going to be able to get the rooms renovated. The public areas and outside construction will be done after the 2009 show. By 2010 we will see all of the renovation completed. The renovation of the Convention Center, where we have our classrooms, wll be completed for the 2009 quilt show.
Meanwhile, we are busy working on the Registration Guide and hope to have it to the printer this week. We'll post information about registering for classes on our Web site, this Blog, and we will send out e-mails to those who have registered before when the registration is open.
We're going to have the past Best of Show winners join us for the 25th Anniversary Celebration of AQS. Several of them will be teaching some of those techniques that made them the big winners. You can take classes from some of the best quilters in the world.
Stay tuned to our Blog...we'll keep you updated with the latest news.
Bonnie Browning
bonniebrowning@AQSquilt.com
It's December 20th.
I am part of a party of five. We were planning on coming to the show from 3 different states. One of the women in our group holds a confirmation letter for the inn. We have ALL signed up for classes (4 of us are members) but are now beginning to think that the hotel deal is not going to be happening. I believe the mayor said that IF the renovations started back in the Fall -- we would be on track. As you know - that ship has sailed. Then we read that they were going to just "clean" the rooms and get them ready. We are ALL concerned with mold and other issues since the Inn has been without power for months on end. Should we be cancelling our classes and flights?
This has been SO frustrating and to be honest - I wish you had moved the show to Springfield. There are SO many people in our guild who would love to see the show in Paducah -- but the dirty little secret they soon learn - is that it is near to impossible to get a room IN OR NEAR Paducah. Last year my husband and I attended the show and the best we could get was a cabin at a fishing camp which was several miles away. We loved Paducah very much. It's a shame they can not seem to get it together to fully accomodate this wonderful show.
PLEASE tell us something so that if we have to -- we can make an attempt to get some of our money back. Thanks.
Post a Comment