Conceived as a new arts hub in a rapidly changing district near downtown Omaha, an experimental theater opens to the city outdoors through a public open space anchored with a mixed-use building. Three related projects share an integrated half-block to transform the relationship of cultural facilities and public / private space towards a collective urbanism.

On a sloping site occupied by an empty parking lot for a shuttered and now demolished restaurant, this arts hub combines a 13,000 sq. ft. facility for the Blue Barn, a non-profit dramatic theater, with Boxcar 10, a 10,000 sq. ft. mixed-use building and a 7,500 sq. ft. public open space. Though designed for separate owners, the projects share a common language and a unified site strategy including innovative storm water retention and reuse. The multipurpose open space, owned by the Blue Barn Theatre, has been designated a public space known as Green in the City. From the project's onset the developers and architects envisioned a collective and collaborative approach to this urban environment that embraced the precision programming required for its intended uses (theater, restaurant, housing…) with a loose approach to team formation and project resolution (the spaces and structures are intended to transform over time). Thus, we chose to hold an open competition for the design of the open space. The landscape design team (El Dorado Inc. and Urban Rain Design) was be selected by national design competition coordinated by the architects.

In its twenty-fifth anniversary year the Blue Barn Theatre engaged the architects to design a ground-up future home for the innovative theatre company. The challenge was to design a new building increasing the capacity of the company while maintaining the upstart scrappiness and risk-taking ethos of the Blue Barn Theatre. Our goal has been to enact an exciting urban environment out of the highly specific / technical requirements of the theater alongside a framework that would allow programmatic and material improvisation. At the core of the Blue Barn is the theater with a 1000 sq. ft. stage and 96-seat house, a hybrid of proscenium and black box types. However, with the opportunities afforded by the new site and looking to expand the potentials of the theater, the Blue Barn sought to mediate between the technical and functional demands of a modern theater, a desire for opened and engagement with the city, and the excitement of continual and unpredictable evolution.

The theater building presents a reinterpretation of the conventional black box theater. At Blue Barn, the literal blackness of the theater interior promotes focus but the form of the space, including the fixed seating and textured wood acoustic wall system, give the theater a unique character not normally associated with the black box type. There is no physical proscenium, but the opening between house and stage forms a precise frame proportion as desired by the company. Black curtains aid in reconfiguring stage and house boundaries and a very large sliding wall at the back of the stage opens the theater to the exterior performance area and public open space beyond.

This moving wall allows the protected space of theater (normally hidden from the outdoors) to connect the abstraction of the theater space with the realities of the city outside. Flexibility is not perceived as the absence of form but instead the presence of unique and carefully considered infrastructure. This innovative layout supports a variety of theater configurations from the conventional proscenium to the less common alley theater and environmental theater forms. The ability to open the box changes the theater's flexibility, allowing the ability to stage different events and communicate with the city and neighborhood in ways that will alter the perception of the Blue Barn itself. Where the traditional black box theater provides opportunities for dramatic innovation inside a limited realm, new types of performances and engagement with the city / public are now possible.

At Blue Barn, the remaining theater program is organized concentrically around the black box and stage void with the back-of-house operations arranged along the south side of the building against the party wall with Boxcar 10. To supplement the Blue Barn, the developer of Boxcar 10 proposed a mixed-use building that reinforces the arts-focused neighborhood with a much needed dining spot and housing. The building complements the architecture of the Blue Barn but is distinguished by the dominant residential volume, an exterior black box that is close in plan to the proportions of the theater interior.

As the architects and design coordinators of this site, we think of these combined buildings and landscapes as one larger project with the shared goal to invigorate the site and neighborhood through innovative programming. Arts, housing, entertainment and recreation work in tandem to create a social hub for the city. These are buildings and spaces that will change with inhabitation.

Min | Day sought a collective and collaborative approach to this urban environment embracing a loose approach to team formation and project resolution (spaces and structures will transform over time). Min | Day commissioned 4 artists to develop integrated functional building elements as artworks: a custom brick vestibule by Michael Morgan; interior lighting and built-in furniture by Jim Woodfill; reclaimed wood, heavy timbers, and custom sinks by Daniel Toberer; and the very large backstage door by Chris Kemp. This approach freed the architects from the constant burden of authorship.

Both buildings and the adjacent open space integrate a shared storm water system and a combined infrastructure bar containing transformers, dumpsters and rainwater storage tanks. Rainwater harvested from the roofs and upper elevations of the site will be used for irrigation and cleaning of hardscape surfaces. This approach serves the broader purpose of demonstrating intelligent and responsible urban site planning with the hope that it inspires future projects in the city.

Photographs by Paul Crosby.