The Robbins Village Theater Foundation has asked Famiano Design Group of Winston-Salem to create working plans for the redesign of its recently acquired next-door building.

Buying the former barbershop and Masonic Lodge hall gave the nonprofit group a near perfect location for new restrooms, work spaces and other needed facilities without having to lose historic aspects of the theater building members hope to preserve.

Famiano has already done laser-scanned, computer-generated drawings of the theater building and will now use its laser-scanned data to create as-built drawings of the adjacent barbershop/lodge hall structure. That is expected to take 20 hours of computer-assisted-drafting and cost $1,300.

Both sets of drawings are for use in the design phases of the transformation of two old downtown buildings into a performance center for upper Moore County.

The next phase for Famiano is creating a three-dimensional realization and design work on the new building: Bathrooms and other remodeling of the barbershop building will enable the nonprofit to protect historic aspects of the Village Theater like its separate ticket window, stairway and upper balcony, all relics of American's past days of racial segregation.

Famiano will provide final drawings ready for a licensed professional to complete. All in all, the Robbins Village Theater Foundation will spend over $10,000 on Famiano's work and will have fully realized images needed for grant applications as required by agencies and organizations.

At its October meeting in the freshly painted theater lobby, the board decided to go with Famiano's proposal. The contract will be signed and the first installment of the payment mailed. Initial projected cost is $10,900. The first $2,500 for the as-built scan of the barbershop building has already been paid.

Much planning needs to be done, and members of the board will confer on their ideas for a number of details. They plan to open the wall between the two buildings in two places: one in the present theater lobby, and another upstairs in the balcony section.

Other plans include removing crumbling plaster in the barbershop building on the common wall to expose the original brick, which would then be cleaned and sealed.

The board is excited about its prospects, now that the two old structures will be blended into a common building. A showplace there is less than an hour from Chapel Hill, just over 60 minutes from the center of Greensboro, and easy driving distance from other population centers in the Triad and Triangle areas of the state.

Contact John Chappell at (910) 783-5841 or jfchappell@gmail.com.