The new 907-seat Belding Theater and its accompanying staff and patron facilities have dramatically expanded the Bushnell’s ability to present cultural and educational programming, and have transformed the Bushnell into a Center for the Performing Arts.

The multi-purpose Belding Theater, designed for theatre, ballet, opera, and symphony, includes generous new lobbies with patron amenities for both theaters, a new box office, the 200-seat Autorino Great Hall for cabaret performances and functions, a café, a gift shop, offices and educational facilities for the Bushnell’s youth programs. The central entry courtyard draws on the drama of both buildings and provides an outdoor room for warm-weather events. The Belding Theatre features a ceiling mural created by the team’s architects and Boston-based artist James Piatt, AIA.

Wilson Butler Lodge Inc. (now WBA) and Hartford-based associate architects Schoenhardt were selected in 1998, through a design competition, to design the 91,000 s.f. addition to Bushnell Memorial Hall.

Project Info
Cost: $32,000,000
Complete: 2001
Scope: Master Plan, Architecture, Interior Design, Construction Administration
Client: Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts
Staff: Scott Wilson, AIA; Scott Butler, AIA; Bruce Herrmann, AIA; Barbara Sherman, IIDA

www.bushnell.org
www.wtnh.com (telecast)

"The Bushnell marches on into the 21st Century, a powerful mixture of the old and new promises to delight generations of theater goers in both historic and exciting new surroundings."
CT Business Magazine

"[The new Belding Theater has] transformed what was once a single magnificent building into a stunning performing arts campus... the Great Hall robed in glass beckons invitingly from the street. Its centerpiece is a 900-seat theater to die for, a stage bigger than the one in the main hall. Its lobby cries out for crowds."
Editorial, The Hartford Courant