CHAUTAUQUA – Chautauqua Institution was tugged a bit further into the future this week after structural issues made a controlled collapse of the Amphitheater necessary.

“This stage of demolition took place earlier and more rapidly than previously expected after work in recent days to disconnect the roof structure from the Massey Organ chamber resulted in stability issues,” said Jordan Steves, Chautauqua Institution director of communications in a recent press release.

“Our engineers knew the organ building, though not designed for that purpose, has a stabilizing effect on the entire facility,” Steves said. “As the final structural beams … were disconnected from the chamber, the construction team observed movement in the remaining Amp roof structure.”

Due to safety concerns the roof was brought down by two excavators. Steves said the collapse only took a few moments.

“Looking ahead,” he said, “the project timeline remains on track and we expect the site to be cleared by the end of next week.”

Crews currently are moving materials to an off-site location for sorting and recycling. Progress can be followed in real time by accessing an “Amp cam” at ciweb.org/amp-cam.

The $41.5 million project is funded through foundation and private donations and will include an expanded bowl and roof structure, enlarged seating area and a new, 21,000-square-foot back-of-house facility and includes other features. LPCiminelli Inc., of Buffalo was awarded the contract and will serve as the project’s construction manager. The project is slated to be completed by 2017.

Brian Berg, Committee To Preserve the Historic Chautauqua Amphitheater co-founder, said there is no reason why the Amphitheater should have been demolished.

“Chautauqua deserves better than this the community deserves better than this,” Berg said. “Replicas belong in amusement parks and Las Vegas.”

He said the committee always advocated for the evolution and change of the Amphitheater as historic sites do often change. However, he said the desired outcomes of the Amphitheater project could have been achieved without tearing down the old structure.

He said the way the entire process has gone on has been “dishonest and disingenuine.” It shouldn’t be surprising then to note many architects have said the collapse was not what it appeared to be, he added.

“If you find and ask an architect that is not affiliated with the project, they will tell you this was not a controlled collapse,” Berg said. “These kinds of things don’t happen at the end of the day when most of the workers are union members.”

A resident of Chicago, Berg said he has been a Chautauquan for 50 years, but he is “keeping his options open” regarding returning to Chautauqua Institution.

The committee along with five institution property owners filed a lawsuit in the earlier in the year which resulted in a court-imposed restraining order which stopped work on the project for approximately two weeks. However, the Hon. Frank A. Sedita III, justice of the State Supreme Court, dismissed the lawsuit.

Several visitors had stopped by the site last week to see what had recently been done. Pat Finson, owner of Pat’s at Chautauqua, said she is looking forward to the new construction.

“Once the decision was made, you just need to be supportive and just go forward,” said Finson. “I found not this summer, but last summer there was just so much controversy and there was a lot of negativity. I didn’t feel any of that this summer, so I think it’s taking a real positive approach going forward.”

She said she came to work early Thursday to view the progress of the project thus far.

Susan Harvout, who has visited Chautauqua since she was a child, said she has many fond memories of the Amphitheater but understands why a new structure is necessary. She said her parents worked at Chautauqua Institution for several summers in her childhood, and she frequently visited the Amphitheater in her youth.

“Last night I was walking around here and there were some other women, some younger and some older, and I was standing down on the other side, and I could see the Athenaeum, which you normally couldn’t do because the Amphitheater was in the way. I was thinking, ‘I went to that restaurant in that hotel when I was 5. I remember my mother was in the Symphony and I remember my mother playing on this stage,” Harvout said. “My father was in the Opera Company and he sang on this stage. I remember running down the aisles for various events when I was a kid.”

She said the aisles of the Amphitheater weren’t as easy to maneuver as years passed.

“Coming back as an older person, walking up and down the aisles is a scary event. I’m glad they’re fixing it because I hope it means more people will come to it and there will be easier access,” Harvout said. “Part of it is easier access. My neighbor across the street nearly fell last summer he was walking up and holding onto the handrail and he was lucky there was a friend behind him who caught him because he started to go backward.”

She said she is torn between the memories she had of the old Amphitheater and the new construction.

“On the one hand I’m sentimental about it but on the other hand, I’m really excited,” Harvout said. “I’m excited to see what it becomes and I’m excited to see what they can do with it. I’m just glad we’ll still have the organ.”