Making The Stage: Cincinnati’s S.C.P.A. Gets a New Home

I asked one student of the new S.C.P.A. (School for Creative and Performing Arts) what she would look forward to in the new building that open its doors this August and she said, “clean drinking water.” Another middle school student mentioned “stairs that won’t hurt”, in reference to the picturesque grand stair covered in a soft, speckled-blue linoleum. She is also excited about the new theatres and dance studios and big lockers. A music student likes having Music Hall just two blocks away and will feel safer with better building security. These are the thoughts of a few of the K through 12 students who will use and evaluate their new school in just a few months’ time. It is an exciting time for the school that has had to make do with aging buildings throughout its entire history. The fact that the new school is located in downtown Cincinnati helps the revitalization of downtown and the Over-The-Rhine neighborhood to the north of Central Parkway.

At the school’s open house I was able to tour the facility (the way I prefer to: darting around by myself and taking notes) and it was easy to see what people are excited about: a top arts school for the 21^st century with features and amenities we could only dream about back in my student days at the old school, the five-story brick-and-stone colossus on Sycamore Street in the same downtown neighborhood.

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The architects of this project, design architect Curt Moody of Moody-Nolan in Columbus, Ohio and project architect Cole and Russell of Cincinnati, seem to have addressed the complex program requirements well. Where the old SCPA made do with two theatres this facility boasts three. The Corbett Theatre seats 750 in a European-style multi-tiered house. The stage and proscenium are immense and impressive, and the fly gallery (where scenery is “flown” up and away during scene changes) rivals that of grand Music Hall just up the street. The stage manager’s callboard, like everything else in this new theatre, is state of the art. The orchestra pit at the front of the stage is raised and lowered hydraulically. (The old main theatre at S.C.P.A. had no orchestra pit). The theatre has been soundproofed, as well. Theatre acoustics have always been a nightmare for directors and stage designers; space, people and furnishings tend to swallow voices from the stage, especially spoken words. Performers and stage technicians in this new space will be hoping that technology and engineering have eliminated some of the headache.

The more intimate Mayerson Theatre is suitable for recitals or other small music or dance performances. Wood-veneered movable panels will be used for voids and reveals since there are no wings. As with the Corbett Theatre, lighting and sound equipment are the finest available. Acoustics, as before, are top of the line. On the lower level is the Blackbox theatre, customizable to seat 100 to 150 audience members.

The dance studios are of a quality that Juilliard would envy: beautiful sprung wood flooring, sunlight pouring in through the windows, flat screen TVs, sound systems that would make an audiophile weep. Art majors will facilitate their development with fine basswood desks and custom-made easels. Focused track lighting shines down on each art desk, which is adjustable and equipped with brush and pencil holders. The showpiece art studio is on the northeast corner with views of Race Street to the east and Washington Park to the north. At 1000 square feet it is ideal for work on larger paintings. In the next room is the sculpture studio. Recalling the modest classroom facilities for visual art in the old school, this is a new day for art majors at S.C.P.A.

As I explored I realized there are no double-loaded corridors in the new school, which cuts down on noise in the hallways during and between classes. It also creates a more intimate feel among students moving between classes and using their lockers, which are larger than older models. A significant design choice was to separate the arts education classrooms and studios from the academic classrooms and labs. The eastern wing and corridors house the academic classrooms while the arts education rooms and studios are all on the west side of the school and fed by the north-south running corridor. Other than the eyesore of exposed steel beams on the classroom ceilings covered in cheap, spray-on fireproofing, the classroom model is a good one; a spacious, sun-filled learning room with video screens, grease marker boards and new desks and chairs. (Separate desks and chairs, not the terrible one-piece desk/chair modules we hated so much in high school.)

The two-story entry lobby, the views of the city, the modern media center/library, the wonderful cafeteria space with colored glazing and flooring and mosaic art works, the modern theatres, the breathtaking dance and art studios are the stars of the school’s vibrant interior. The building’s exterior, however, is another matter. It is overwrought, stylistically kneecapped and entirely charmless. Undoubtedly there was more budget for the interior than the exterior but that is no excuse. The jarring combination of metal panels on the south elevation (the storefront public entrance side) is bad enough, but then to pair them with cheap Jumbo brick is inexcusable in a high-profile building like this one. (Jumbo brick is a larger, cheaper brick unit usually seen in grocery store or other low-budget retail construction.) One metal panel type is of the dull, battleship gray variety and the shinier, patterned panel is inelegantly wrapped around the auditorium of the Corbett Theatre like a tacky ball gown. Rather than announcing a new arts school theatre, it more suggests a striptease academy.

On the north elevation, the cheap brick is a little less offensive without its metallic clubfoot, yet the fenestration chosen here is another disappointment: a generic, straight-from-the-catalog, narrow window for the pedestrian Jumbo brick skin. While the glass wall on the south elevation is welcome and opportunistic of the views of downtown, the use of these cheap and featureless windows as individual pieces elsewhere on the building smacks of lazy design. Come on, find a better-looking window and work out a deal with the distributor and put one of their ads in the school performance programs. Don’t just pull out your dog-eared Sweets catalog and pick the first window you see.

To be sure, there is a lot to admire and enjoy about the new S.C.P.A. The three theatres, the first-class art and dance studios, the museum-style lobby, the eight soundproof practice rooms, the music rooms for each style of music taught and played. And the mod cons: a water fountain in every classroom, air conditioning, a color-graphic scheme to reemphasize program areas, bright student gathering areas. But when the design of the building’s enclosure is as ham-fisted as this one is, the result is that it usually looks dated the minute its finished, and this one does. One has to ask whether the choice of Moody and his group was a good one, and whether the aesthetic collapse continued under the supervision of Cole and Russell, who aren’t known for strong design projects.

The students will determine the efficacy and potential of this new building, which required numerous fund raising campaigns and private donations to bring to reality. The hope for the neighborhood is that the school can improve it through the energy and urban connection it will bring; help clean up derelict Washington Park and its surrounding blocks. The bunker mentality that sometimes set in at the old school in its rough neighborhood was disappointing, so here’s hoping the new S.C.P.A. will lift its community to its level of exploration, learning and love. The school’s motto is written “Esse Quam Videri” in the old building, and its Latin means “to be, rather than to seem.”

To exist as a finished work of art, or a finished building, or a student who loves to learn and work hard, is the thing.

Geoff Simmons is an architectural critic based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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