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 collided with Boulder’s permitting process this spring after Chautauqua began construction work without required permits, prompting a stop-work order, fines and a nearly eight-week shutdown…