1988 Honor Award for Preservation of a Downtown
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Playhouse Square
Cleveland, OH
Allen Theater, Palace Theater, Ohio Theater, State Theater, Hanna Theater
National Trust for Historic Preservation, Honor Award for Preservation of a Downtown, 1988
Our firm has renovated and reimagined all eight of Playhouse Square’s theaters as well as restaurant and banquet facilities, a parking structure, a central box office, and adaptations of adjacent buildings for art galleries, workplaces, and educational spaces.
In a partnership that was the first of its kind in the nation, WVIZ/PBS and 90.3 WCPN ideastream, affiliates of National Public Radio and Public Television, and the Playhouse Square Foundation joined forces to co-locate within a single facility, integrating broadcast media, performing arts, dance and education programs. The design leverages a highly visible, street-front location on the main corridor of the city’s urban core.
Great Lakes Theater, one of the country’s top regional theater companies, was originally constructed in 1921 and was renovated to provide a home for the Great Lakes Theater, one of the country’s top regional theaters. The project re-imagined and modernized the 1,400-seat theater into an intimate 560-seat proscenium/thrust stage. The project conformed to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and was structured to take advantage of federal and state Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits.
The Tony Award-winning Cleveland Play House, the nation’s first professional regional theater, and Cleveland State University were both in need of new theater facilities. Our team’s transformative renovation and expansion of the Allen Theatre creates an arts hub where CSU’s theater students work alongside professionals and graduate students in the Cleveland Play House / Case Western Reserve University MFA acting program. The complex includes a 512-seat proscenium theater; a 300-seat multi-form theatre; and a 150-seat black box.
The Ohio Theatre Lobby functions as an important pre- and post-performance and event gathering space within Playhouse Square. Our restoration of the lobby returns the massive space to its original 1921 neoclassical splendor. Using the original architectural drawings, photo archives, and remnants of surviving ornamental plaster detail, the restoration recreates original paint colors, plaster ornamentation, and columns, accurately replicating the original design, while accommodating current building codes.
National Trust for Historic Preservation
AIA Cleveland
Ohio Historic Preservation Office
AIA Ohio
USITT Ohio Valley Chapter
International Downtown Association
AIA Cleveland
Ohio Historic Preservation Office
Building Design + Construction
AIA Cleveland