The Guthrie Theater & The Orchestra Hall: Performance Spaces and Public Engagement

ARCH 3711W | Julia Robinson & James Wheeler | Fall 2016

Figure 1 Figure 2

The performing arts and the spaces that host them are an integral part of Minneapolis’ flourishing arts economy. Whether it be plays or musical performances, iconic spaces throughout the city uphold the iconic performances around the area. Performance spaces are intensely focused on creating an environment that allows users to experience the show and escape reality for a little while. For this project, we were tasked with performing a comparative analysis between two powerhouses in the Minneapolis—and Minnesota—performing arts scene: The Guthrie Theater (Figure 1) and the Minnesota Orchestra Hall (Figure 2).

Though these two sites are places where similar events happen, they are incredibly different in feel, materiality, and in terms of how it connects to the world around it. Through our analysis, we focused on observing as much as we could about each space’s environment, and then formulated an argument about what a public performing arts space should incorporate in order to make it effective and engaging. We came to the conclusion that an effective performance space is one that engages both the senses and the lives of the public it serves. We analyzed each building in terms of first impression and accessibility, movement throughout the space, lighting and color, materials and furniture, and enrichment and community involvement. We believe that each of these aspects plays an integral role in shaping each user’s sensory experience as well as contributing to why a user would choose to visit these spaces both for and outside of a performance. Location

The Guthrie Theater has three different stages that house different types of plays and musicals. The Orchestra Hall has one central auditorium that is the single platform for orchestral and other music performances. They are located at opposite ends of Downtown Minneapolis: The Guthrie hugging the Mississippi River on the East side of downtown, and the Orchestra Hall capping off the Nicollet Mall area to the West.

History & Design The Guthrie Theater was rebuilt at its current riverside location by architect Jean Nouvel. The style pays homage to the shapes of the mill district on the East and West banks of the Mississippi River (Guthrie Theater). The Orchestra hall was redesigned in the same location in by KPMB architects in 2013. The original Orchestra Hall was constructed in 1974. The new design utilizes its binary materiality of stone and glass to successfully anchor Nicollet Mall’s old stone and glass-faced skyscrapers (KPMB).

Transportation Because Minneapolis has a widely accessible public transportation system, both of these spaces are easy to get to without a car. The Guthrie is accessible on once side by the Stone Arch Bridge, which generates a great deal of foot traffic in warmer months. The rest of the facility is within one block from two bus stops and only a few short blocks away from the U.S. Bank Stadium light rail stop. The Orchestra Hall, being closer to the downtown network of transportation, is close to many bus routes, and is four blocks away from the Nicollet Mall light rail station. Both spaces have adjacent parking ramps (more nearby are available to the Orchestra Hall), have street parking, and are bike-friendly. Program The Guthrie Theater houses three different stages that give each performance a different experience and different audience interaction with the space. Most of the space is open for the public to explore. The endless bridge and the Dowling studio are especially sought after destinations within the space, as well as the Sea Change restaurant and the gift shop. The Orchestra Hall features a single main auditorium, but also has indoor and outdoor event spaces adjacent to Peavey Plaza that hosts gatherings and receptions for Orchestra members. Both spaces have information desks and a box office.

Orchestra

First Impression (Exterior Materials) Both of these buildings begin to engage the public at the scale of the streetscape. The Guthrie utilizes its blue metal cladding and pockets of colored glass to offset it from the color palates of the surrounding buildings and going directly to the blue of the river for inspiration. It’s use of opaque materials for the exterior allow the interior to remain a mystery for visitors, which draws people from the street into the building. The Orchestra Hall, on the other hand, displays its interior from the outside with it’s massive glass façades. At the sidewalk level, the Orchestra Hall sits at the human shoulder level, guiding users’ view upwards into the space, and showing it as somewhat unattainable. These exterior appeals successfully show The Guthrie as a theatrical space up for exploration, and the Orchestra Hall as a place of high class with a light and airy feel.

Building Access The Guthrie and the Orchestra Hall present their entrances in very different ways. The Guthrie provides a handful of different entrances while the Orchestra Hall only has two main points of entry. The Guthrie’s strategy for this makes sense because it is only providing entry into a very limited main floor, while the Orchestra Hall’s two entrances lead users into a very open space with a great deal to see from the main floor. Both buildings also feature skyways that connect the sites to an adjacent parking structure.

The Guthrie Orchestra Hall

Circulation & Movement It is once these spaces are analyzed in terms of their interior qualities that they start to show their differences in engagement in very real, tangible ways. The circulation diagrams and Gamma analyses show this well. In the Guthrie, movement is restricted on the first level, and then opened up in an axial way on the fourth floor. The movement is then narrowed again as users move up in the space. This engages users much like a play does with rising and falling action bordering a climax in a storyline. Users of the Guthrie are moved through a curated procession through the building that architecturally prepares them for a theater performance. The Orchestra Hall is much more fluid and interpretive. It’s open main floor lobby is available to be explored at will, with no need other than curiosity to explore the upper mezzanine levels. The facility also funnels users into the performance space systematically (seen in the gamma diagram). This funnelling provides users with a binary approach to performance preparation: there is the mingling area, and the performance area. This corresponds well with the Hall’s purpose as a space for a historically more serious and high class genre of event.

The Guthrie

Orchestra Hall

Lighting These venues continue to divide the ways in which they engage guests when it comes to the analysis of lighting. Lighting is a quality that may not be denotated at first impression, but it is always experienced and sensed; therefore its impact on human experience is crucial in setting up a space. The Guthrie’s main floor was used in our analysis because it acts as a template and baseline for how the rest of the publicly-accessibly levels function in their lighting. The Guthrie’s large disbursmenet of natural light in the center walkway and small pockets of artificail light begin to inverse as users travel throughout the different levels of the space, further removing senses from reality. The Orchestra Hall’s lighting remains constant on each floor, pushing further the binary approach to the performance space and deliniating to users’ senses when the lobby ends and the auditorium begins.

Orchestra Hall Orchestra Hall

Color Color, just as much as lighting, plays an incredibly important role in shaping the sensory engagement experience of a user in any given space. The Guthrie and the Orchestra Hall continue to show the differences in their chosen environmental narratives through each space’s use of color.

The Guthrie’s color is direclty proportional to its lighting schemes in terms of engagement. The space starts of so influenced by natural light that it adapts ot the outside colors around it. As one moves up level by level, this experience of color is further curated by isntallations of colored glass and prominent blocks of color throughout the carpet and walls until the Dowling studio’s intense yellow is experienced; drawing guests completely away from their ability to distinguish color in an analogue way instead being taken into an augmented reality by Jean Nouvel. This experiential quality of color as well as the colors themselves (reds, blues, and yellows) act theatrically to encourage guests to step out of previous conceptions of what a building can do to the senses.

The Orchestra Hall’s color is primarily displayed through reflective materials. Because a large majority of the building is clad in white marble, the interior takes on an almost ethereal glow in the midst of its most-lit peiod of the day. The lobby space during night time performances is cast in warm colored shadows that are punctuated by reflected golden lights from the surrounding skyline, connecting guests to the city from inside the Orchestra Hall. The use of glass as a main cladding material for the building is key in keeping up the Orchestra Hall’s approach to its particular brand of performance by allowing the color to be controlled by the outside environment much like the inside experience is controlled by each user’s curiosity and preferences.

Figure 3

The Guthrie (Fabric, Glass, Colored Glass, Light Fixture) Orchestra Hall (Glass, Marble, Light Fixture, Cubes)

Materials The materials in the interiors of these spaces also perpetuate their ways of curating a user’s time in the space. The Guthrie uses dark fabrics to create comfort in the performance space to help users feel safe to open up to the experience of the performance. Glass, as mentioned above, is uses throughout in small and big ways to curate views and detract users from reality. The lighting fixture is important because it outright states the purpose of the light in the building: to be unobtainable but used. The Orchestra Hall uses glass to create openness—the exact opposite of the Guthrie’s usage. The marble in the space is one of the most important features of the entire building because it is in contact with guests at almost every step of the mingling process. It sets the stage for the formality of the events that the Orchestra Hall holds by going back to memories of ancient uses of the stone. Marble is seen as pure, valued, and pricey; and that is what the Orchestra is in many ways. The Cubes that are utilized for acoustic purposes in the auditorium of the Hall start to articulate a materiality of sound and play. This is different from the lobby areas in an almost 180º way, but this type of shift is fitting in the binary approach that the Orchestral Hall takes.

Figure 4

Figure 5

The Guthrie Orchestra Hall

Furniture The furniture in each space is one of the most important factors in curating human experience. Though architecture, light, color, and activities can draw a person into a particular space, furniture dictates whether a formal or a casual experience will be had inside; or whether he or she will stay a while or leave as soon as standing and walking around becomes tiresome. The Guthrie’s furniture is minimal on the upper and lower floors: a few cushioned benches are the extent of it. The fourth floor, however, (the floor with the most theater access), has a number of seating options that are quite comfortable. There are clusters of armchairs amidst side tables in different areas of the lobby in addition to backless cushioned benches and cushioned benches which utilize the walls as backs. Many of these furniture arrangements face the stunning views the Guthrie has to offer of the Mississippi River and the Stone Arch Bridge. The Orchestra Hall utilizes the same strategy of backless benches and benches with walls for backs throughout the space. It also incorporates a handful of tables and chairs, but they are not cushioned. Contrary to the Guthrie, the Orchestra Hall’s furniture directs guests inward instead of out. Guests face the doors to the performance auditorium when seated along the benched glass wall, which creates anticipation for the event ahead. These differences articulate a divide in urgency and everyday use in each space. The Guthrie allows users to take intermissions and weekly accessible time to sit with others and discuss the performance or utilize the space to experience Minneapolis’ views. The Orchestra Hall, on the other hand, is focused on the performance time more than the other times the building is open for use, and it shows through its choice in rigid and minimal furniture.

Enrichment and Community Engagement Though many of the material and sensory qualities of each space have been illustrated to show how each plays an important role in engaging visitors of each space, another important facet of engagement is what types of activities are actually drawing people to the spaces outside of performances, and tangentially, when guests do arrive, what besides architectural features is there for them to look at and explore? The Guthrie features a wide variety of ways it engages the public it serves. Events such as yoga and weekly tours are available to the public to get people into the space. The Guthrie also features an entire portion of the building (the 8th floor) dedicated as an Education Center that provides surrounding communities with classes, workshops, ways to engage schools, and even classes focused on helping business interactions. Beyond the center, the Guthrie incorporates education into the space through a couple notable features: the etched murals depicting famous play scenes, the captioned photographs seen in the progression from lobby to theater entrance, and a glass wall on the fourth floor that peers into a cavern of set design and storage that allows users to see how the performances they view are created. Additionally, the Guthrie keeps fairly lax hours for the public to enjoy the space outside of performances. It is open 11AM – 8PM on performance days, and 11AM – 5PM on non-performance days (The Guthrie). The Orchestra is far more restricted when it comes to enrichment and community engagement. The Minnesota Orchestra offers a countless number of events, galleries, special performances, and receptions, but a large percentage of these are by invite only and for sustaining Orchestra members. A few exceptions to this exclusivity, however, are the relationships the Orchestra has with youth events, and the occasional free summer concert. Besides the Orchestra’s website and performances, the only other ways to access information about the space and its offerings are through the box office or the pamphlets offered near the entrance of the building. Even access to this is limited, as the hours of the space are 10AM – 2PM throughout the week, and it is open 2 hours prior to each performance. Though these aspects of the Orchestra’s engagement seen limited compared to the Guthrie, it cannot be overlooked that they are, in fact, in step with the air of the Orchestra as a whole as illustrated throughout this analysis (Minnesota Orchestra). Conclusion Our analysis proved to be incredibly helpful in determining what is successful and what can be improved upon in the endeavor to create an effectively engaging public performing arts space. Neither the Guthrie nor the Orchestra Hall is perfect, and neither of the spaces are failures either. They each carefully design the type of experience and environment they want their guests to have: The Guthrie is exploratory, theatrical, curated, and mysterious; the Orchestra Hall is formal, exclusive, open, and interpretive. It is safe to say that these characteristics and how they relate to the general architectural goal of creating a space that is conducive to a good experience of its program is successful. This, however, is not what we were looking for. In order to effectively bolster business, grab attention, and get the public interested in the type of performance each of these spaces (and all other performing arts spaces) offer, a premium must be placed on engaging the senses and the lives of these target audiences. The

way that the Guthrie reaches out to surrounding communities with unconventional activities and a focus placed on public enjoyment and use of the space at all times is undoubtedly successful in gaining business and inspiring interest. The Orchestra Hall falls flat in these areas because it caters to such a specific audience, and that audience does not shift, change, or grow much at all. When it comes to choosing a space to experience a performance in, sensory and community factors will be taken into account. A well-rounded, successful space for this sort of activity will grab attention at the street level, draw people in through events and openness, take users on a journey of space, and above all else, create a space that is worth coming back to, if even to explore the areas that remain untouched, untasted after a visit. A space that can utilize its architectural environment to aid in the process of providing guests with a step away from reality and into experiencing true art is the epitome of a successful performing arts space, and there is much to be learned from the Guthrie Theater and the Minnesota Orchestra Hall.

Bibliography* Figure 1:

https://www.google.com/search?q=the+guthrie+theater&espv=2&biw=1359&bih=706&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiH_8ee3s_QAhVG1oMKHcA4CrEQ_AUIBygC#imgdii=glb238SUFSOkPM%3A%3Bglb238SUFSOkPM%3A%3BfuqB6rkAP0F4QM%3A&imgrc=glb238SUFSOkPM%3A

Figure 2: http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/minnesota_orchestra_orches

tra_hall_logo.jpg Figure 3:

http://www.archdaily.com/769831/minnesota-orchestra-hall-kpmb-architects/559bbddae58ece97a40000e2-minnesota-orchestra-hall-kpmb-architects-photo

Figure 4: http://www.guthrietheater.org/about_guthrie/our_spaces

Figure 5: http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/317994-embattled-minnesota-orchestra-unveils-renovated-concert-hall/

Guthrie Theater. Theater History. The Guthrie Theater: 2016.

http://www.guthrietheater.org/about_guthrie/theater_history KPMB Architects. Architects Vision. Minnesota Orchestra: 2016.

http://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/images/pr/pdf/KPMB_architects_vision.pdf Minnesota Orchestra. “Community,” “Teacher’s Students, and Parents.”2016.

http://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/

*All images, diagrams, and information have been taken, created, and resourced from ________ unless otherwise cited