ConstellationCenter Opens... A Newsletter

No, Glenn KnicKrehm hasn't released a revised timeline for his plan to build the ConstellationCenter, a multi-theater performance space in Cambridge. But the project, which he at one time said would be complete by 2005 - as of yet, ground hasn't been broken - has taken a step forward.

Issue 1 of "ConstellationCenter News" has arrived.

In the glossy mailing, we learn that the center's current cost is $85 million, "though we feel it might be significantly higher as the aspirations of our donors and supporters inevitably expand." (Hint, hint.) Of that total, KnicKrehm says about $35 million has been raised. The Ellis L. Phillips Foundation will get naming rights for the baroque organ in the center's "Great Hall," and a William Brown of Phoenix, Arizona has donated his 1928 Wurlitzer theatre organ.

Other news nuggets:
- KnicKrehm has acquired nearly 200 film prints over time, from recent Oscar winners to "Le Jardinnier L'Arroseur Arrose," the 1895 movie by the Lumiere Brothers. For now, the collection will be stored at the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study.
- Newsletter readers are invited to make an appointment to hear how the ConstellationCenter will sound by visiting the AcousticsLab, a space in East Cambridge where "state-of-the-art technology transports a listener to many of the finest performance venues around the world, as well as into the future with ConstellationCenter's own halls".

And fear not, acousticians... There may be no ground-breaking scheduled, but KnicKrehm does let supporters know, through a timeline, that a tentative "testing" trip will be held later this year in Bremen, Hungary, and Paris.