A referential and reverential civic music venue.
Riverview Park was an amusement park operating from 1915 to 1978. The park included the Riviera Ballroom, a nationally-known music venue. Other popular attractions included a steel coaster named the “Wild Mouse”, a wooden coaster named “Coaster”, numerous carnival rides and attractions. Vestiges of this place are few. The site was bare except for a decades old metal flag pole.
The stage is the celebration of a city’s history and a neighborhood’s pride. It is a venue for performance intended to echo the purpose and import of the original Riviera, which once hosted the likes of Stan Kenton, Duke Ellington, Lawrence Welk and Glenn Miller. The modern form of the structure belies a series of historical references woven into the design. The open-air venue harkens back to the ballroom’s original design with open side walls and exterior seating areas. The barrel trusses reflect the form of the original structure and the stage resides near the spot where the Duke once thrilled crowds.
The design’s tenet is rooted in place-making for a vibrancy that has been hushed for over four decades. Soaring trusses, repurposed from a grain storage facility, intimate a spirit of adventure through scale and a sculptural futility. They boldly mark the outdoor room for the community to gather, employing a syntax that evokes the daring of yesterday’s “Coaster” and “Wild Mouse”. The intent is to be magical, even mystical— recollecting the ghost structures of the island.
The Riviera Stage celebrates this place with an insertion that is indefinably referential. The aspiration is that a memory can be recalled or simply created through reference and the spirit of performance.
The island will again be home to legends, laughter and dancing.
The flag pole remains…
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