Cleanup Crews Tackle a Tall Order : Workers Prepare Performing Arts Center for Its Big Night

Ermino Cuevas and Gregorio Tellez took turns running a giant squeegee attached to a 75-foot handle up and down the windows of the Orange County Performing Arts Center all day Saturday, working against the clock.

“Everything has to be absolutely perfect,” said Gary Frahm, the man in charge of a small army of maintenance workers who are preparing for the Center’s opening Monday night.

And perfection calls for attention to minute details.

The black floor in the 3,000-seat main theater, for example, “will look like glass before we’re through,” said Frahm, owner of Service Industries in Long Beach. Two coats of sealer and three coats of wax were applied--by hand--and polished with a high-speed buffer. The rich dark wood of the door frames, baseboards and handrails also were waxed by hand. The bathroom marble counters and tile walls were cleaned with foam; no abrasive cleaners were used for any of the marble or porcelain, Frahm said.

A national wax company is researching to determine the best cleaning product for the Center’s various woods “so that there’s no guesswork involved,” Frahm said, and a computer is helping with the Center’s maintenance work.

“It’s a science,” he said. “We even picked out vacuums that are the quietest, in case we need to clean up something during a performance.”

The toughest job, Frahm and the workers said, was cleaning an 89-foot-tall wall of mirrors, which connect all levels of the Center by the grand staircase. The next biggest challenge was cleaning the windows that are next to both the mirrors and the “Fire Bird,” a 120-by-100-foot sculpture of stainless steel and aluminum whose wings sweep through the inside and the outside of the building.

While the crew of about 40 workers continued Saturday with the cleaning job they had begun about two months ago, another small group of men laid outdoor carpeting in a room that will be used for private parties. Other workers hung mirrors in hallways that performers will use getting to and from the stage. New plastic shower curtains were hung in dressing rooms.

Outside, Roman Garcia, 18, shook just-trimmed bushes to look for leaves that may not have fallen to the ground.

“It would be ugly if they turned yellow and we didn’t remove them,” Garcia explained.

He then cleaned each area by hand, because a rake would “remove too much earth.”

In another area, laborers constructed the flooring for tents that will house more than 3,000 guests Monday night at an outdoor party following the performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Outdoor carpeting had been laid under the tents, but rain earlier this week took planners by surprise and made the floor a soggy mess. On Wednesday, following a night of rain, Carol Campbell, who is in charge of staging the outdoor event, was at the site at 5 a.m., assessing the situation.

The rain was incessant Wednesday. On Thursday, a soil expert was called in. By Saturday, men were working round-the-clock shifts laying plywood planks. This time, the outdoor carpeting would go on a wooden floor.

Campbell, owner of Carol Campbell and Co. in Newport Beach, was taking other precautions, ordering a sixth tent “just in case for rain protection.” She also called a television weatherman for a forecast but he had no sure-fire prediction, she said.

“Your weather can be your best enemy or your best friend,” Campbell said. Preparing against surprises is a key in staging the special event, she added.

By late Saturday, Frahm proclaimed that everything had been “meticulously done.”

Almost. Wiping dust from a wardrobe room cabinet with his finger, Frahm grimaced. “This will have to be done again. Nothing will be neglected.”