SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2010
KLMNO the new arena stage} the review A brilliant space, a challenge to the city
Bing Thom’s Arena raises the stakes for civic architecture
by Philip Kennicott As you negotiate the traffic-
clogged lanes of I-395 as it passes over the Washington waterfront, look east, and there’s a tonic on the horizon. The thin white roof of ar- chitect Bing Thom’s Arena Stage is just visible, rising no higher than the urban clutter of Southwest Washington, but saying more, with more humor and poetry, than any- thing around it. You can see it from street level, too, as you emerge from the Waterfront Metro station, a bold expanse of canted glass, supported by inclined wooden col- umns and capped by a shimmer- ing, white, cloudlike roof. Thom’s new building is unlike
anything that has been built in the District. It took an outsider, a Ca- nadian architect, to break with the usual habits of large civic architec- ture in the nation’s capital. Thom has managed to design a structure that takes seriously the moral im- peratives of contemporary archi- tecture — sustainability, preserva- tion, social transparency and fidel- ity to the needs of the client — without falling into cliche, empty bombast or hollow functionality. He has built a grand space, but with curves and lightness, that should function well as a perform- ing arts center and even better as a catalyst to the neighborhood around it. Perhaps it seems an odd build-
ing, at first. Arena was ambivalent about its old home. Its two existing theaters — designed in the 1960s and early ’70s by Harry Weese, the architect who designed Washing- ton’s Metro system — were ugly and inadequate, but they were also historic and had landmark status. Noise from the street, and from jets using Reagan National Air- port, leaked into the dun-colored brick boxes. Abandoning them for a spot near or on the water was tempting, but it would also sever a vital connection to the institution’s past. Thom chose to enclose the old
theaters in a large glass terrarium, as if they were magic objects that needed to be encased and protect- ed. Future observers may wonder whether Weese’s 1961 Fichandler Stage and 1971 Kreeger Theater were worth preserving. But con- temporary critics can only marvel at the bold way in which Thom solved a seemingly intractable problem: improve what he found, add new space, and stay rooted to the old address where M Street and Maine Avenue meet. Thom was likely building on his
experience with an earlier project, ashopping mall near Vancouver, to which he added a new, state-of- the-art university complex and of- fice building. He is not afraid of keeping ugly things in or near his buildings, so long as he can create a whole that is superior to the parts. To some, keeping the old thea- ters will seem like a fussy conces- sion to orthodox preservation. To others, it will seem an act of gener- osity, environmentally sound in a larger, do-no-harm sort of way. And for skeptics, there is always time. Someday these buildings may be beautiful. Values always change. Intellectually, it seems an easy
thing to put the old theaters under glass. But the challenges were enormous. The existing theaters were once connected by a public space as enticing as the waiting room at the DMV. Now, they need- ed a new relationship. They had to coexist without seeming to crowd the enclosure, which also contains office space, state-of-the-art sce- nery and costume shops, public terraces and a third, entirely new theater. Arena also wanted swank new amenities, the bars and res- taurants and mingling space that make a night at the theater reason- ably civilized. There were also technical de- tails, of not much importance to casual visitors but vital to a theater company: How do you move sets into three theaters that are all con- tained within the same, Acropolis- like structure? And while a giant, encompassing roof solves many of the problems on paper, how do you build it? Something must support that roof, ideally without a forest of columns or other supports clutter- ing the interior. The solution is both structurally and symbolically brilliant. The newest theater, called the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle, ties ev- erything together. With only 200 seats it is the smallest of the spac- es, but it is also doing the most work. Inspired by the sculpture of Richard Serra— his large, mysteri-
LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST
ADDED DRAMA: A rear view of the exterior of the remodeled Arena, with its glass and concrete outer shell.
ous torquing metal ellipses — the Cradle supports much of the roof. It balances the bland horizontality of the two existing theaters by ris- ing above them, giving the entire building vertical energy and a cen- tering, focusing nodal point. And it symbolically inverts the hierarchy of most theaters, making the “black box” space where new and experimental work is nurtured the most prominent architectural ele- ment of the building. In a forthcoming book about his
work, Thom writes, “We have been attracted to the Asian tradition of non-linear thought and holistic thinking rather than the more reg- imented logic of the Western intel- lectual tradition.” And while skep- tics who have heard similar decla-
rations from a thousand fuzzy- thinking poseurs may wince at that, the truth of it is manifest in Arena’s new home. The cradle, which is entered through a long, narrow, gently sloping semicircu- lar passageway, creates an energy of contradiction and inwardness that does indeed balance the factory-like Weese theaters. It gives an organic rather than
geometrical perspective to what might otherwise be a disorienting feature of the building: the gently sloping floor of the main atrium space. Because the two existing theaters are entered from different levels, the new atrium splits the difference not with stairs but with a gentle curvature of the floor, as if you are standing on natural terrain
ARENA STAGE THE OLD CAMPUS: The Arena Stage theaters in 1971, after the opening of the Kreeger.
rather than a man-made horizon- tal surface. The concrete curves of the Cradle, visible from inside and outside the building, are like a fun- damental tone in music: a power- ful, organic, non-linear ground that harmonizes all of the seeming oddities of the entire complex. Thom also says that Vancouver has been a powerful influence on his architecture. Some of that in- fluence is explicit in the new build- ing, especially the huge columns made of super-strong wood com- posite that help support the roof. These 18 columns, rising up to 56 feet in the air and anchored at their base with a seductively point- ed, heel-like metal fitting, each bear some 400,000 pounds of load, including the weight of the in- clined glass curtain wall. It is the first use of this material in the United States, and the largest building in Washington to be sup- ported substantially by wood. Large wood elements, Thom
says, are actually more fireproof than metal; they will char but won’t burn through. More impor- tant, they have a definite flavor of the Northwestern forest: dark, cool, solid and refreshing. The shape of the thin, ethereal
roof, a gesture Thom has used in other buildings, may also be a Van- couver detail. “In Vancouver, where the earth is dark and the overcast sky is white with reflected
light, you have to finish a building against the sky with stronger ges- tures, otherwise you can’t clearly see where the building ends and the sky begins.” In Washington, where building codes create a mo- notonous, low roofline, a strong gesture at the top of a building is also welcome, and Thom has pro- vided one.
But it is the connection to the
city that best defines the building. It has a processional drama that begins at the street, continues through the building and climaxes at an outside terrace with a grand view of the waterfront. It also has a surprising and almost sly view of the Washington Monument, a glimpse of the monumental Wash- ington that connects Arena, and Southwest, to the larger city. Who knew that Southwest, this oft- neglected sliver of the city so bru- talized by years of toxic urban re- newal, was so close to the action? And that’s the point. Arena ac- complishes everything that the sil- ly, bombastic and obscenely expen- sive stadium built a few blocks away for the Nationals — at more than 41
⁄2 times the cost of the
$135 million Arena Stage — fails to do. Arena is authentically connect- ed to the city. It isn’t hemmed in by parking garages. It doesn’t enclose visitors in a cocoon of the crassest commerce. It doesn’t proffer false avatars of civic identity. The view
of the Washington Monument from its terrace takes your breath away because it is subtle and sin- cere, a genuine civic gesture, not a decorative postcard view intended only as a backdrop for cocktail par- ties.
When a genuinely good building arrives in a city filled with so much generic architecture, it’s worth considering all the might-have- beens. Arena Stage might have left Southwest for someplace where there are already crowds, restau- rants and night life. It might have abandoned theaters that are now deemed ugly, but may be judged differently by posterity. It might have created a more modest, eco- nomical and traditional building. Instead, it built a building that ris- es to the first rank. The building will also challenge Arena, and the city, in ways salu- tary to both. The city is still devel- oping Southwest, and the presence of an important building there raises the stakes. There is now a new context for everything that happens near Arena, and the stan- dard Washington mixed-use, glass- and-faux-stone box will not be a neighborly addition anywhere near the new theater. Arena is also committing itself to playing at a higher level. It now has a marquee home. It’s time to do theater that matters.
kennicottp@washpost.com
E3
“ Richard Strauss Salome Featuring Deborah Voigt
Oct7,10m,12, 15,18, 20,23 In German with English supertitles
Tickets Start at $25 Order Online at
www.dc-opera.org
202.295.2400 • 800.US.OPERA Allperformancesinthe KennedyCenterOpera House Wheelchair accessible seating is available in all price categories for all operas. Call 202.295.2400 or email
adacoordinator@dc-opera.org.
Tickets at the Box Office or charge by phone (202) 467-4600 Online at
kennedy-center.org | TTY (202) 416-8524 | Groups call (202) 416-8400
HAIR is made possible through the generosity of The Adrienne Arsht Musical Theater Fund.
THRILLING, INTENSE, UNADULTERATED JOY.”
–THENEWYORKTIMES
ART BY AMY GUIP
Photo by Dan Rest/Lyric Opera of Chicago
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