After completing a city-wide arts master plan in 2001, we were selected to lead a team including local designers, Glave & Holmes Associates and BAM Architects, to design a series of performing arts facilities in Richmond, VA.

These include a combination of new performance venues and the restoration of three of the city’s historic theatres.

With work begun in 2002, the project’s Phase One will create a new Center for the Performing Arts (above) that brings together the renovated, historic (1928) 2043-seat Carpenter Center, with a new 1000-seat Music Hall and a new 200-seat venue for multiple users, on Richmond’s downtown “Thalhimers Block”.

Later phases include the renovation of the historic (1927) 3500-seat Landmark Theatre; the renovation and expansion of the historic (1911) 600-seat Empire Theatre and the renovation of the historic National Theatre, being designed by architects Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas & Co. in Norfolk, VA.

The foundation for these projects was the master plan developed in 2001 by WBLI (now WBA) in concert with arts management consultants AMS, Theatre Projects Consultants and Kirkegaard & Associates, acoustic consultants, which evaluated the four existing performing arts facilities in downtown Richmond.

The study, which involved interviews with over fifteen arts and cultural groups, resulted in the creation of what is today’s building program: a program of architectural upgrades and new construction and the creation of a foundation, The Virginia Performing Arts Foundation, that initiated the project with the Richmond Arts Alliance, and is now overseeing the project.

Project Info
Cost: $66,400,000 (Thalhimers Block)
Complete: 2007 (Thalhimers Block)
Scope: Master Plan, Architecture, Interior Design, Construction Administration
Client: Virginia Performing Arts Foundation
Staff: Scott Wilson, AIA; Scott Butler, AIA; Bruce Herrmann, AIA; Robert Lee, AIA; Gregory Etter, AIA; Barbara Sherman, IIDA

arts / entertainment

master planning

"When we showed people the designs for the center, what we kept hearing was ‘Wow’."
Brad Armstrong, Chairman, Virginia Performing Arts Foundation

"These facilities will be an engine that drives economic growth, educational opportunities and the enhancement of our quality of life. This is a great thing for Virginia."
Stephanie S. Micas, Executive Director, The Arts Council of Richmond