For Boulder
Magazine, 11/8/11
By Brad Weismann
For Nick and Helen Forster, a dream 20 years in the making
is coming true. For Boulder ,
a brand-new cultural center is almost a reality.
The Forsters (Nick is best known as a founding member of the
influential bluegrass group Hot Rize) founded and have helmed the award-winning,
nationally syndicated music/environmental issues radio show “eTown” in Boulder
for two decades. The show has lacked only one thing – a home of its own.
“It’s going to give the community something it’s never had
before,” says Nick Forster from the offices he and Helen and their staff
already occupy in the building-in-progress at the corner of 16th and
Spruce Streets. “It’s going to give the town a listening room.”
The former church on the site is being transformed into a
17,000-square-foot complex. There is a 200-seat “eTown Hall” auditorium, as
well as a smaller “Bohemian Room” downstairs, recording studio, post-production
facilities and more. The opening is slated for April 22, 2012 – appropriately
for the show, Earth Day.
eTown Hall is being constructed on stringent “green” lines. Most
importantly for the community, says Forster, is the fact that the facility can
host events, classes and activities of all kinds, becoming a community cultural
hub.
“What makes a healthy community is a ‘third place,’” he
states. “There is home and work, and a third place can be a church or a
coffeehouse or a corner store, anywhere work, and a third place is where you
can feel connected. We hope that eTown Hall will become that third place for a
lot of people.”
