Alex Romanowski
Fraternity Chapter House: 10’ Bar and DJ Stand
My fraternity, Sigma Phi Delta (a social/professional engineering fraternity), was founded on Lehigh’s campus 10 years ago. Since that time, one goal of the organization was to become officially recognized in the eyes of the school and earn a chapter house on Lehigh’s hill. Last year (2022), I had the pleasure of serving on the exec board that worked with the school to bring us into the fold of Lehigh’s Interfraternal Counsel and secure a chapter house on the hill. Although the school was kind enough to grant us the privilege to rent a chapter house, we had to furnish the whole thing ourselves. This meant fundraising from friends, family, and our small alumni base. I personally raised $7,500 which was enough to cover the majority of our recreational space.
In order to save funds, I lead the team that designed, budgeted, and built our bar and DJ stand. I’m incredibly proud of these projects because they are the largest and most complicated projects I have personally designed and executed.
The Bar
The 10’ long bar boasts a two teared prep/serving space, sanded/stained/sealed wooden paneling, interior shelving, sliding barn doors, sturdy framing, and flashing for additional water resistance.
The L-brackets support the solid corian top
The sliding barn doors provide easy access to the interior
Three of the bays sport shelving for storage of smaller items
Two of the bays do not have shelving to store bulk items
Design
I worked in tandem with a longtime friend and architecture major to pick the general style and theme of the bar.
After that, I spent many hours on Youtube researching different construction methods and designs for bars. Finally, I landed on a framing system that would hold up against extreme abuse while providing plenty of behind bar storage.
Note: The dimensioning in the upper left view does not follow convention. I dimensioned this way as a note to self.
Once the design was finalized, we submitted our papers to the school for approval and communicated with the administration for revisions and further detail.
Neither of the following were drawn to scale
Budgeting
Although we did not have a specific dollar amount we were trying to keep that bar within, all decisions were made to maximize utility and aesthetic for the lowest cost. For that reason, we used thinner plywood for the back paneling of the inside of the cabinetry did everything from scratch except for the counter top. See the cost sheet below.
Construction
The majority of the construction was done in my garage off campus while a few cuts were made in the woodshop. For the most part, I organized shifts with my brothers to move the project along.
Once the framing was in place, we took the bar up to the chapter house to install it and get approval from the school. Next, we attached the paneling, installed the cabinetry, and sliding barn doors.
DJ Stand
Furnishing our rec room from scratch gave us a lot of liberty with how we wanted to organize the space. After many hours of debate we landed on a truss system for lighting flanked by speakers with a DJ stand as the focal point.
The DJ stand needed to be light enough to move and adjustable. Therefore, I designed a 3 panel system with hinges and minimal framing.
The framing allowed for light but sturdy construction, while the hinges provided some flexibility with the set up.
To highlight the stand further, we used UV activated paint and set UV lights in the direction of the stand.
We also created a light box for each panel to give the illusion of our letters in 3-D. To do this, I cut our letters out from each panel, then built a white box behind them. We then ran LED’s around the perimeter of the box to create a 3-D glow.
Behind the stand, I re-purposed an old dip bar I made during COVID to act as a stand for the electronics. The DJ stands on a small platform behind the stand to further accentuate their presence in the room.
