More than a decade ago, three of Charlottesville’s signature arts organizations got a beautiful new home—the City Center for Contemporary Arts, housing Live Arts theater, Lighthouse Studio, and Second Street Gallery. Yet, since 2003, the lobbies of the building—on floors one, two, and three —have been unfinished.
“It was an awesome achievement—a very, very ambitious project,” said Jeff Bushman, whose firm Bushman Dreyfus designed the facility. A shortfall of funds meant that the front of the house was left in a raw state, and was often used as utilitarian space. “Sets were built in it; chairs were stored,” said Bushman.
In 2011, Live Arts began to tackle the question of how to at last finish the lobbies, making them places that catered to patrons. “It took a lot of soul-searching by Live Arts staff,” said Bushman. In the process, the organization had to rethink its ways, as well as the space it had grown accustomed to over the last 11 years.
For one thing, the theater would devote less room to permanent concession areas, opting instead for more flexible space that could be used for presentations or rented out for events. For another, it would jettison the main theater’s lower balcony, which “severely constricted sightlines” from the upper balcony, said Bushman.
Overall, the goal was to make the building a proper home for a grown-up theater—one that had come a long way from its shoestring origins a few decades ago. “It’s time to take Junior out to dinner,” said Bushman.
The result is a showstopper. Bushman Dreyfus’ design balances elegance with a trademark Live Arts aesthetic: “made by hand, and by volunteers,” as Bushman put it. That doesn’t mean “second-rate” —it means “labor of love,” as in the striking natural-edge pecan planks that one longtime Live Arts volunteer made into panels and display shelves.
The pecan wood is a warm element within an otherwise industrial palette. Perforated metal panels make up the stair rail, while concrete treads by Fine Concrete provide a solid and very modern look to the stairs themselves. Local fabricator Gropen created signage with cutout stencil-style text, including a large wayfinding wall on the ground floor that spells out for visitors what’s contained in the building.
Structurally, the major change was to remove a concessions “tower” that had punched through four floors of the building. Now, only the ground floor box office remains, and a single concession spot—more like a bar, with its sinuous concrete bartop—is located on the third floor in what had been an outdoor terrace.
Removing the tower freed up square footage in the lobbies, and Bushman Dreyfus designed understated elements that suggest and invite mingling there. Red banquettes encircle the third-floor lobby, while a drink rail rings the second floor. Mark Schuyler’s lighting design, said Bushman, invites passersby even from the street.
And a huge red theater curtain falls two stories along the staircase, providing apt symbolism and a moment of—what else?—drama.