The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, home to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Opera, and the touring base of the Minnesota Orchestra, was designed to serve the diverse artistic needs of many kinds of performers. The sophisticated multi-use and variable acoustics of the facility blend state-of-the-art technology with the warmth of a traditional recital hall or opera house.

With 1,906 seats in its main theatre and 315 seats in the McKnight Theatre, the facility as a whole is 165,000 s.f. of performance, rehearsal, support, patron and office space. The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts completes the fourth side of historic Rice Park and brings light, liveliness and a spirit of rebirth to downtown St. Paul. Opened in 1985, this project was Scott C. Wilson’s first theatre, for which he was Project Architect and Associate-in-Charge of Construction.

Project Info
Cost: $26,100,000
Complete: 1986
Scope: Architecture, Construction Administration
Client: Ordway Music Theater
Staff: Scott Wilson, Associate-in-Charge/Project Architect, while with Benjamin Thompson & Associates (BTA)

"The Ordway offers its prismatic glass and copper facade as a dramatic presence completing the civic quadrangle around Rice Park."
Architectural Record