For 127 years, the Colorado Chautauqua auditorium has largely gone dark each winter, its open-air design built for summer concerts beneath the Flatirons, not January snowstorms.
Now, crews are working around the clock to transform the historic venue into a year-round theater before Sundance arrives in Boulder next January, compressing what organizers say would normally be a three-year project into just 13 months.
That accelerated timeline drew scrutiny from the city this spring after Chautauqua exceeded the scope of a permit for fire suppression system updates and performed additional construction without required permits — prompting a stop-work order, fines and a nearly eight-week shutdown.
The episode has become an early example of a tension surrounding Sundance’s arrival in Boulder: the urgency institutions face to move quickly and the city’s deliberate permitting, preservation and review processes.
The 1,300-seat auditorium at the base of the Flatirons was viewed early on as a potential Sundance venue after Boulder secured the festival with a $34 million package of city and state incentives.
But there was a logistical challenge. The auditorium has historically operated only during warmer months, typically closing around October.
So last November, the Colorado Chautauqua Association began work to winterize and upgrade the building. The project represents the most significant renovations to the auditorium since its construction in 1898.
“It’s a massive project,” said Shelly Benford, the organization’s CEO.
But some of the work moved ahead before the required approvals were in place.
“Extensive structural work and demolition was illegally performed before a building permit or landmark alteration certificate application had been submitted to the city,” Kristofer Johnson, a city planning manager, told Boulder Reporting Lab.
The organization had a permit allowing upgrades to the building’s fire suppression system. But Benford acknowledged that some of the work went beyond what that permit allowed.
“We did some work under the building that was not included in that specific permit,” she said.
Chautauqua first applied for a building permit in January, but the city said the application was incomplete because it was missing required information, including soils and asbestos reports.
City spokesperson Cate Stanek said staff worked with Chautauqua to complete the application process as soon as the unpermitted work was discovered. Chautauqua submitted complete building and landmark alteration applications in March.
But the stop-work order did not end the issue immediately. Johnson said staff observed “extensive foundation and structural work” at the auditorium on March 20 and 23 despite the order. The city later imposed $7,600 in fines for violations of Boulder’s building code.
By April 24, both permits were approved and the stop-work order was lifted the same day.
The delay disrupted Chautauqua’s schedule and finances.
Benford said the organization had originally hoped to complete the project’s first phase in May. The delay meant Chautauqua had to move four concerts and cancel another concert and two graduations, resulting in roughly $400,000 in losses.
Chautauqua is now trying to complete the project’s first phase by June 25, before the next slate of summer performances begins. At times, as many as 70 construction workers have filled the auditorium, some working consecutive shifts.
The second phase, including the winterization work, will begin after the summer season ends. Chautauqua leaders say the project remains on track for Sundance’s opening in January 2027.
“As a city, our goal is to ensure this building (and all buildings in the city) are designed and constructed in a way that will keep people safe,” Johnson told Boulder Reporting Lab in an email. “Ensuring that projects comply with our codes and regulations is one of the ways we do this.”
Both parties said they are working collaboratively and are excited about the auditorium’s next chapter.
A long-discussed project accelerated by Sundance
Benford said Chautauqua had considered winterizing the auditorium for nearly a decade, but Sundance ultimately pushed the organization to move forward.
During Sundance representatives’ first visit to Boulder, Gov. Jared Polis asked whether the auditorium could be winterized in time for the festival, Benford said. Visit Boulder, the Boulder Chamber and the Sundance organizers also expressed interest in using the venue.
“So we just kind of went into overdrive to get a team together of designers, architects, engineers, builders to do it,” Benford said.
So far, the Colorado Chautauqua Association has raised about $8 million for the renovations through private donations and bonds issued by the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority. The organization also received a $250,000 grant from the State Historical Fund.
Benford said Chautauqua has not received direct financial support from the city, state or Sundance itself.
She said the organization still needs to raise another $6 million to $7 million to complete the project.
Preserving a historic landmark while preparing for year-round use
The Chautauqua auditorium was built in 1898 as part of the national Chautauqua movement, which brought lectures, education and cultural programming to communities across the country.
After years of deferred maintenance, the building was recommended for demolition in the 1970s. Preservation advocates ultimately saved it, helping secure its placement on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and its designation as a National Historic Landmark in 2006.
Benford said the current renovations are designed to preserve the auditorium’s historic character while making it usable year-round. Winterization will rely on removable wall panels designed to preserve the venue’s open-air look during summer months.
The broader project includes fire suppression upgrades, accessibility improvements, lighting and acoustic upgrades, structural reinforcements, indoor restrooms, concession areas and a new basement-level multiuse space.
“The structural engineer came in and said this place could get blown over by a really stiff wind,” Benford said, pointing to wooden support beams that are now being reinforced with metal.
“If we didn’t do a lot of these improvements, this building could be gone,” said Debbie Stewart, Chautauqua’s chief development officer.
Benford said the renovations are expected to add roughly 200 days of programming each year, with community arts groups already expressing interest in using the venue.
Clarification, May 29, 2026 10:36 am: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story inadvertently implied near the top of the story that all construction at Chautauqua began without permits. Chautauqua initially performed work under a permit allowing replacement of the auditorium’s fire suppression system. However, the organization later conducted additional construction work beyond the scope of that permit without a required building permit, prompting the city to issue a stop-work order.
The department does not work for its own constituents. I remember when EFAA’s food bank was flooded by an upstairs apartment broken pipe. The city took months to approve the permits to just put things back in order to reopen – for the city’s main food bank! The department is accountable to no one and works against the common sense interests of its own citizens. Probably too busy working for the developer class!
Agree.
“The structural engineer came in and said this place could get blown over by a really stiff wind,” Benford said, pointing to wooden support beams that are now being reinforced with metal.”
Gotta kind of wonder about an engineer making that statement about a 127 year old building that has withstood numerous 100+MPH wind storms over the years.
I have long advocated for an entire revamp of the planning department. The department was designed in the 1970’s to slow down growth in Boulder. That remains the modus operandi. We need an over-the-counter permit approval for buildings under 600sf and all residential remodeling building permits should be reviewed and approved in 7 days or less. New residential and commercial permits should be reviewed and approved in less than 90 days. In my experience, planners routinely throw up obstacles that are not code related. In fact, I have found that most planners don’t understand the nuances of building code that they are upholding. This wastes time and extends the permit approval, often by weeks and months since responses to take 4-6 weeks for the planning department to act on. Only to have planners send out another exception which again delays the project 4-6 weeks. We need these exceptions to be acted on in 4-6 days not weeks.
What is wrong with the Boulder planning and building department?! Unless you have tried to pull a permit, you likely cannot understand just how dysfunctional the department is. Red-tape, hoops to jump through, moving targets and ever-evolving comment lists are an understatement. It is as if the staff gets together every morning and has huddle about how to stop progress, as if they were playing defense against the citizens’ offense. It is to no benefit of the Boulder population and adds cost to an already expensive proposition.
The work happening at the Auditorium is first-class, I have observed it with my own eyes. Legions of tradesmen are stabilizing and tastefully modernizing what will be a community asset for generations to come. The City slowing this down benefits nobody. Time and money lost. The timeline of getting the building ready for Sundance put into jeopardy for no benefit. The same drama has been playing out in the homes under construction in our town every day. The Council and Commissioners need to put energy into streamlining this department and making it an entity that works for the citizens of Boulder rather than against. That, or we need elected officials who will make this a priority.
In my opinion the engineer’s comments are equivalent to saying that the “the Amish don’t know how to build a barn”. I’ll grant that steel is stronger than wood, but wood can be plenty strong enough. The engineer would have been required to “prove” that the wood structure was up to 21st Century Standards, then multiply by 3 to protect himself from the lawyers if anything, for any reason, went wrong. This regardless of the fact of the building’s long history of surviving our very “stiff breezes”.
I agree with the comments by others regarding the need for a complete overhaul of the Planning and Building Department. Perhaps AI will help. Their motto should be, No matter how long, or how much it takes, We don’t care.
Are they including air conditioning in the renovation? In past summers I remember sweating through performances even in the evening. I would think it’s uncomfortable for performers too.
There are two sides to every story. I live near Chautauqua and have been a resident homeowner for over 40 years. I hike on the trail near the auditorium. There are about 7 spaces near the trailhead for hikers near the shelter by the auditorium. The disabled parking space is continuously taken up by workers’ trucks. As is the disabled place by the office along with other disabled places nearby. I have complained to the office repeatedly, as I have a disabled permit due to a hip issue. They repeated have told me they do not have the time or authority to address this issue. All they needed to do was to ask the contractor to tell his workers to free up a few spaces for hikers and the disabled spaces. So yes, they have the authority.
Furthermore, I have observed an area by the small bathroom area and the kiosk next to the auditorium being excavated at least twice and maybe three times. This tells me that there is not adequate oversight during the construction process and unexpected things are occuring. It is a contractors responsibility to get adequate permitting for these situations and check in with engineers. Hopefully, this is being done continuously. It is not the City’s fault that this was an urgent construction want due to Sundance. Should the City put Chautauqua ahead of every other construction project that has lined up for permitting? Chautauqua management and the contractor overseeing this job should know better than to do construction on a property which is very old and has been landmarked. Putting the blame on the City Planning Department is unfair. The Chautauqua Association has equal blame for this rush project and lack of permitting.
The City knew what Chautauqua was up against featuring them to attract the festival.
I’m getting mixed signals when you complain about lack of handicap parking at hiking trails. Do you also take the escalator when going to the the gym?
People with disabilities enjoy being out in the community as well as able bodied people do. To assume that they are all there to hike the entire Mesa trail is silly. Those parking spaces enable people who can’t walk from parking several blocks away to access the local Chautauqua area as well as the trails. The comment about an escalator to the gym is just ignorant and ugly.
They clearly should have applied for the permits that represented the scope of work. They didn’t, got fined. The City did a quick review and got them a permit.
It would be nice if the permit review process was that responsive to single-family projects. Seven months to get a permit for a straightforward renovation is way too long. It’s not the burdensome Boulder codes, it’s the review process.
If you guys have issues with the Planning Department, you should contact the City Manager and City Council. Since the drought, our house has had some strange issues with cracks in the plaster which I have never observed in the 40+ years I have owned the house. I actually hired a local structural engineer (PE) who has degrees from CU. This man has been working in the Boulder area for over 45 years. He is very familiar with the variations of our clay soils and the effect that our winter heat and drought has had on local foundations set the clay soil. The composition of the clay in the soil also varies in different Boulder neighborhoods. This man has recently observed a lot of issues with local buildings. I also received a second opinion from a small structural engineering firm in Denver. They confirmed everything which he told me in regard to the fact the foundation may be shifting and settling. As I mentioned before, I own a home 2 blocks from Chautauqua Park. It is possible that the auditorium is experiencing new structural issues to extended winter heat and drought. These issues may have resulted in the need for further evaluation of the structural integrity of this historic building and also delays in permitting. I would like to hear from a structural engineer who has actually analyzed the property during this renovation. Possibly there has been more going on here structurally then previous commenters realize.
I have an orthopedic hip issue. I walk on the trail with hiking poles for rehab. Cement is very hard forme these days.