The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles is getting a facelift.
The organization recently broke ground on its home improvement project – a conversion of its 22,000-square-foot, 1965 warehouse into a two-story public venue.
Located in Echo Park, the Shakespeare Center is dedicated to theatrical storytelling and community arts enrichment. The renovation will include a new 299-seat live performing arts theater and a multi-media rental studio, as well as additional supporting sound stage space.
“Renovating our 22,000-square-foot warehouse to support live multi-media performance, as well as building out the functionalities demanded by high-tech media production, will enable us to create great art that meets the moment and support other nonprofit arts organizations and commercial for-profit entertainment industry enterprises to do the same,” SCLA Founder and Artistic Director Ben Donenberg said in a statement.
Culver City-based architecture firm SPF:a is the project’s lead designer.
“Our improvement plan for the center strongly centers on maximizing what is already available to us,” said Zoltan Pali, founder and design principal at SPF:a. “This is in part due to the budget and in part our desire to reduce the environmental footprint of the building.”
The existing building will undergo a number of structural changes, including raising the current roof by 20 feet and seeing a hole punched in the floor for a stage pit. The new theater, which will span 16,200 square feet, will feature a green roof meant to absorb sunlight and improve insulation, along with a rainwater collection system for irrigation.
In addition to adding functional improvements, SPF:a is also having some fun with its design process – including adding a ribbon facade inspired by the traditional Elizabethan ruff worn by Shakespeare himself to three faces of the building.
To date, $15 million has been raised to support the first phase of the project – through the sale of U.S. Department of the Treasury New Market Tax Credits, a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration, as well as a donation from The Ahmanson Foundation.
Phase one is estimated to be completed by mid-next year. An estimated $10 million more is needed to finish all three phases of the renovation. Phase two will encompass interior lobby upgrades and follow with facade upgrades.
