Music Pier Getting Some TLC -- Underneath the Building

During its nearly 100-year lifetime, the Ocean City Music Pier has outlasted the Depression and many other epic events in U.S. history.

However, its oceanside location at Moorlyn Terrace and the Boardwalk constantly exposes the historic building to storms and the corrosive salt air, making it vulnerable, too.

While most of the improvements done to the Music Pier over the years have focused on the main part of the building, the massive concrete support columns and beams tucked underneath the structure also need care to keep the building standing.

Currently, a construction company is reinforcing the concrete support columns, also known as pilings, as part of the second phase of a contract that began last year. The city’s contract with Weatherproofing Technologies Inc. of Beachwood, Ohio, is for $1.2 million.

“The Music Pier is approaching 100 years old, and a structural inspection identified a need to repair/reinforce the concrete pilings and joists that form the substructure of the historic building,” city spokesman Doug Bergen said.

    A construction worker wearing a hard hat ducks underneath the building to check the columns.
  

Workers at the site said the project is expected to be completed by June 20. Since the work is going on underneath the building, beachgoers relaxing on their blankets and chairs only yards away from the Music Pier may not even know that anything is going on.

The Music Pier serves as a grand concert hall and special events venue – in effect, the epicenter of entertainment and cultural arts in the resort.

Throughout the year, there are concerts, musicals, beauty pageants, food festivals, sports memorabilia shows and other events. On New Year’s Eve, the Music Pier serves as the location for the headline act for the city’s First Night festivities, a family-friendly, alcohol-free celebration to ring in the New Year.

Improvements to the main part of the building completed in recent years included a new roof and new heating and air-conditioning systems. A new sound system, stage lighting and upgraded bathrooms were done to create a more inviting experience for the tens of thousands of people who visit the building every year.

    The Music Pier serves as the epicenter of Ocean City's entertainment scene and cultural arts.
  

Although the building’s cornerstone plaque is stamped with the date 1928, the Music Pier actually opened in 1929, the same year as the stock market crash that plunged the nation into the Great Depression.

Inside, the hall seats between 900 and 1,000 people for most shows. The building’s open-sided loggia overlooking the ocean is also a home to special events.

Clad in stucco, the building features an eye-catching, Spanish-style design accented by soaring arched windows that peer out over the beach, ocean and Boardwalk.

    An orange mesh covering alongside the building shows where the work is being done underneath.