A Whole New Newsroom
Part of the fun of Beaumont Enterprise building restoration following Hurricane Rita has been wandering up to the third-floor newsroom every so often to view the repair progress.
Rita trashed the newsroom, thanks to a blown-off roof covering that allowed rainwater to drip through insulation and create bloodlike pools of foul-smelling liquid, which ruined floors and Sheetrock, among other things. Soggy ceiling tiles fell. Air conditioner equipment fell through.
Renovations have been under way for weeks now. Sheetrock has been replaced. Floors have been stripped. The ceiling has fresh tiles. It looks kind of bleached and hygienic up there, almost like a bland hospital.
I don't know how much there is left to do or how long it will take, but I look forward to getting back into newsroom. And other Enterprise employees who've worked around us will be glad to see us go. We can be rather loud and unsettling sometimes.
Minutes ago, I returned from my usual progress-seeking mission to the third floor, and I'm excited to report that the newsroom will be nothing like its former self. Editor Tim Kelly got the idea to whack out some walls, such as those housing the library and antiquated darkrooms, and create more free space. In fact, the entire photo department's walls are gone, with the exception of Assistant Managing Editor Pete Churton's office, which looks like an island now.
I'm not sure what all is planned for all that newfound newsroom space, but it sure is going to look a lot bigger and better. Gone will be the hideous wallpaper in our offices. Gone will be useless storage closests and darkrooms. Gone will be outdated equipment, unused books and heaping piles of old newspapers that needed to be discarded years, maybe even decades, ago.
Like a lot of things around here in Rita's aftermath, it'll be better off in the long run.
But there will be a slight sense of loss and longing for the old, kind of like how a parent feels when a child starts using the toilet instead of a diaper or bathtub for a poop deposit box.
Rita trashed the newsroom, thanks to a blown-off roof covering that allowed rainwater to drip through insulation and create bloodlike pools of foul-smelling liquid, which ruined floors and Sheetrock, among other things. Soggy ceiling tiles fell. Air conditioner equipment fell through.
Renovations have been under way for weeks now. Sheetrock has been replaced. Floors have been stripped. The ceiling has fresh tiles. It looks kind of bleached and hygienic up there, almost like a bland hospital.
I don't know how much there is left to do or how long it will take, but I look forward to getting back into newsroom. And other Enterprise employees who've worked around us will be glad to see us go. We can be rather loud and unsettling sometimes.
Minutes ago, I returned from my usual progress-seeking mission to the third floor, and I'm excited to report that the newsroom will be nothing like its former self. Editor Tim Kelly got the idea to whack out some walls, such as those housing the library and antiquated darkrooms, and create more free space. In fact, the entire photo department's walls are gone, with the exception of Assistant Managing Editor Pete Churton's office, which looks like an island now.
I'm not sure what all is planned for all that newfound newsroom space, but it sure is going to look a lot bigger and better. Gone will be the hideous wallpaper in our offices. Gone will be useless storage closests and darkrooms. Gone will be outdated equipment, unused books and heaping piles of old newspapers that needed to be discarded years, maybe even decades, ago.
Like a lot of things around here in Rita's aftermath, it'll be better off in the long run.
But there will be a slight sense of loss and longing for the old, kind of like how a parent feels when a child starts using the toilet instead of a diaper or bathtub for a poop deposit box.
posted by Brian Pearson at 1:57 PM
1 Comments:
going hi tech eh?
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