Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center
Dayton
Cesar Pelli & Associates, Inc.

Cesar Pelli & Associates brightens downtown Dayton with lights, theater, action

By Benjamin Kline

© Jeff Goldberg/Esto

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

Architect Cesar Pelli wanted the patron to have a magical moment of anticipation and pleasure before the curtain rises in his Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center. Dayton, an industrial city enjoying a revival, wanted a new concert hall to replace its 2,500-seat Veterans Memorial Auditorium with the acoustics of a wrestling arena—one of its functions in the 1950s.

Instantly nicknamed the "Schu," the facility includes a 2,300-seat auditorium; a black-box rehearsal space that doubles as a reception area for cocktails and banquets; an 18-story office/condo tower with below-grade parking for 150 cars; and a new restaurant called Citilites. Pelli tied those elements together with the Wintergarden, a glazed public atrium set back in a convex sweep from the corner of Main and Second Streets. With 13,000 square feet of marble, 1,900 panes of pearlized white glass, boldly exposed steel trusses, and curving balconies and stairways to and from the theater, the Wintergarden provides such an external exclamation and internal kick.

Pelli’s challenge was working with a site too shallow (220 by 455 feet) to accommodate the theater, its backstage facilities, and a typical lobby at the front. His solution was to use the 12,500-square-foot Wintergarden as the lobby, restaurant forecourt, and ticket office.

Within the theater, eyes are drawn upward 90 feet to a domed ceiling on top of four elliptical cone sections, stacked and tipped toward the stage. The deep blue dome contains some 2,000 fiber-optic lights representing the stars in the sky over Dayton the night of December 16, 1903—the night before Dayton bicycle makers Wilbur and Orville Wright achieved the first powered, sustained flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The theater has a taut layout with a loge and two upper balconies seating, respectively, 388, 509, and 482 persons. The orchestra seats 940.

Outside, the theater is essentially a big brown-brick box atop a bigger redbrick box. The back is nicely articulated with orange, brown, and beige brick segments that look, at a glance, like discrete structures. The tower extends straight up, with curved east and west surfaces softening its effect.

The theater is a success. For Phantom of the Opera, it had a million-dollar sales week, a Dayton first. A variety of performances has been packing the place. Acoustics are said to be excellent. The look of the theater, with steep sides and sharply curving balconies, gives it an old-world feel and, for some patrons, a bit of added excitement.

See the October 2003 issue of Architectural Record for full coverage of this project.

Formal name of Project:
Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center

Location:
Dayton

Gross square footage:
Performing Arts Center – 168,500 sq. ft.
Tower – 175,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$77 million

Owner:
Owner During Construction:
Second & Main Limited
Fifth-Third Center, Suite 1300
Dayton, OH 45402
937-226-9038 fax: 937-461-6785
- Steve Mason, Chair
- Pete Horan, President

Current Owner/Operator:
Arts Center Foundation
Second and Main Streets
Dayton, OH 45402
937-228-7581
- Dan Duval, Chair
- Robert Kegerreis, Executive Director
- Mark Light, President

Design Architect:
Cesar Pelli & Associates, Inc.
1056 Chapel Street
New Haven, CT 06511
203-777-2515
fax: 203-787-2856
www.cesar-pelli.com

Architect of Record:
GBBN Architects
322 East Eighth Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
513-241-8700
fax: 513-241-8873
www.gbbn.com