Shaw Center For the Arts

[richyb83]

It's a shame I finally wait this long to start this new thread; with this possible bad news...this is not cool at all! Hopefully things will work out!

Was not sure where to post this?? Fact is Shaw Center for the Arts should have had it's own special thread here on UP a few years ago...even a forumer from Charlotte made a special thread with it's "out-the-box"; love/hate contemporary design! AKA the Shaw Center; it has won International Award(s) and been a major catalyst in the rebirth of downtown BR; and the center-piece of Downtown's new Cultural District!

Cuts threaten museum; Reduced LSU funding may force facility to close

Davis Rhorer kicked off the regular meeting of the Downtown Development District at the Shaw Center for the Arts with a grim reminder Tuesday about the host of that morning

[cajun]

Sorry to hear that.

I know with this latest recession, everyone is belt tightening. Not to mention, between the impending cap and trade deal and card check rules that have the potential to crush this state's petrochemical and construction industries......It's not looking good.

Almost like I wish I could go to sleep for 6 months and wake up on the other end of this recession.

[richyb83]

Not really my thing...but the streets downtown sure do get crowded with this!

Squeeze into the Shaw Center for Art Melt

Art Melt. It's a phrase now common to the Baton Rouge vernacular. After five years, this year's sixth-annual multimedia art show is set to be the biggest. Expect familiar artists and fresh blood as more than 75 pieces will be on display at Brunner Gallery. Across downtown, dozes of other groups are piggybacking on Art Melt, such as Boys & Girls Club artwork at Lyceum Dean, roller derby girls and bellydancers along Third Street. Several downtown merchants will feature live music to parallel Art Melt festivities. Tsunami's hosting a reggae band, Ashes of Babylon, on the rooftop terrace.

http://www.businessreport.com/archives/dai...09/jul/09/1074/

[richyb83]

From the DDD...

Music at Mid-Day

Free lunchtime concerts beginning at noon each Wednesday will feature local musicians, student ensembles, professional musicians and a wide variety of music from Classical to Standards, Blues, Jazz and Americana. Downtown patrons interested in attending can bring their own lunch or order takeout from any downtown area restaurant.

The concerts take place on the Fourth Floor Terrace of the Shaw Center for the Arts.

[richyb83]

Can't wait to see what the new entrance for North Blvd will look like

Shaw Center making upgrades to Hartley/Vey Studio

Plans are in the works to create a direct entranceway to the Hartley/Vey Studio inside the Shaw Center, a move that will open up the space for more events. Renee Chatelain, executive director of the Shaw Center, says there will be an entrance on North Boulevard to the studio. "This will be directly accessible from the town square," Chatelain says. Already the lighting and speakers in Hartley/Vey have been improved. The Hartley/Vey Studio has a capacity of 150 to 250, depending upon whether there are tables in the room. "It's kind of got a club feel in there, since it's an open space," she says. The plan is to have an accessible, more casual space in the Shaw Center, in contrast to the Manship Theatre, which has seating. Chatelain wants to see touring bands and dinner cabaret shows go into Hartley/Vey. "We want to have events that tie in with Live After Five," she says. Plans are to have the work finished by June 2012.

http://www.businessreport.com/archives/daily-report/latest/

Edited June 8, 2011 by richyb83

[Antrell Williams]

Finally! Now what about that hideous door?

[richyb83]

BR theater’s deal to bring ‘indie’ films

Starting in August, the best place to catch first-run independent films in Baton Rouge will no longer be Canal Place in New Orleans. Thanks to a partnership with Emerging Cinema, the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center for the Arts downtown will begin showing indie, foreign and dospriteentary films at the same time they’re screening in cities such as Austin, New York and Los Angeles.

http://theadvocate.c...s-deal-to-bring

Edited July 20, 2012 by richyb83

[cajun]

Glad Shaw center will stop turning its back on North Blvd. it was an architectural failure, IMO, to leave it out.

Edited July 20, 2012 by cajun

[richyb83]

Shaw Center renovations expected to be unveiled in September, October

 

The Shaw Center is currently in the final stages of a $2.33 million upgrade, which will result in a new entrance to the Hartley/Vey Theater out onto North Boulevard Town Square, a bar for the Manship Theatre and various internal systems and workspace updates. The Shaw Center is jointly operated by the state, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and the LSU Foundation.

 

"We'll be able to use the (new) spaces in September, and more fully in October," Chatelain said. "We're already planning some events."

 

http://www.nola.com/living/baton-rouge/index.ssf/2013/08/shaw_center_renovations_expect.html

 

[richyb83]

Visitors at the Manship Theatre went from 35,000 in 2010—the first year of her tenure—to more than 75,000 last year. "We are poised to increase that number next year by 20%," she says. The LSU Museum of Art, which is also housed in the Shaw Center, also increased its number of visitors last year by 25%, amassing more than 20,000 visitors. Chatelain projects that the combined events at the center will allow surrounding vendors to earn more than $3 million in the next 18 months. Audiences coming from different cities are also growing. "In 2012, audience members traveled from 86 cities in Louisiana, 33 states, and internationally, from Sweden, Australia, Ireland, Canada and France, specifically to see performances at the Manship Theatre," she says. "In the last three years, the growth and excitement in this building has been palpable." —Matthew Sigur

 

http://www.businessreport.com/section/daily-reportPM

[Antrell Williams]

International visitors coming to Baton Rouge? That's impressive. I wonder why they are mostly European countries.

[richyb83]

Nice "Opinion" article from the Advocate this morning...Hard to believe it's already been 10 years! Along w the new state buildings around Capitol park; Shaw Center for the Arts has been one of the main catalyst in downtown growth!

 

Our Views: Happy 10th for the Shaw

 

It’s a fixture now, the centerpiece to a downtown blossoming socially and economically. At one time, though, the space that is now the Shaw Center was the old brick “auto hotel” and a collection of other mostly abandoned buildings and parking lots — a problem that could almost come out of a textbook of urban design and how not to do it.

 

Ten years later, it is a remarkable contribution to the resurgence of the Baton Rouge metropolitan area.

When then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco spoke at the opening of the Shaw Center, she called it a jewel of the efforts to make Baton Rouge a city of which the entire state can be proud. That is only getting more true.

 

The hip restaurant Tsunami continues to be a hit, the Baton Rouge location — with a spectacular sixth-floor view — of the restaurant that helped to lead restoration efforts in downtown Lafayette years ago. The center is the home of the LSU Museum of Art and its galleries. Like the larger downtown dining experience, formerly almost nonexistent, one can find almost any dish in restaurants in the “arts block” itself, not to mention the many other places nearby. There is the Manship Theatre and the smaller Hartley-Vey Theatre in the Shaw Center.

 

More residences on that block are in the works, with the Baton Rouge Area Foundation’s real-estate arm, Commercial Properties Realty Trust, building at the corner of Convention and Third streets. The $7 million Onyx Residences will have 28 apartments and 5,600 square feet of commercial space.

 

The Shaw Center is particularly important because of the collaboration involved in getting such a huge project done. The people who pulled together state and local government, LSU and the private sector ought to reflect on that experience today.

 

The complexity of the arrangements made the Shaw Center a difficult project, but it remains both a success and an indicator of potential not only for downtown but for the region — if we work together.

 

When it opened early in 2005, there was a new mayor-president (Kip Holden) who had worked as a legislator with his predecessor (Bobby Simpson) to make key investments in the Shaw Center and the critical Hilton hotel across the street. The leadership of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation made the project possible, but it took years; town planner Andrès Duany had outlined a new urbanist vision for downtown in 1998, and the Downtown Development District had been beavering away in an adverse economic climate for years before the big payoff. Private fundraising was critical to making the Shaw Center possible.

 

But a big payoff it is, a showplace for a city that is not only growing but raising the bar for its ambitions as a city. The Shaw is a great urban place at the center of the city but not the upper limit to its future

 

http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/11386476-123/our-views-happy-10th-for

[richyb83]

The Shaw Center 10 years later...The landmark continues to drive revitalization downtown

 

John Davies still beams when he talks about how it all came together

 

The president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation was heavily involved in fundraising for what was then a wild idea—one he initially thought “preposterous”—to build a massive cultural center around and above the historic Auto Hotel downtown.

 

The aging loft building would be fully renovated, with commercial space on the street level and offices for local arts organizations above. But the ultra-modern, 125,000-square-foot addition would be the eye-catcher, housing the LSU Museum of Art, which had outgrown its campus location, a theater with seating for 325, gallery spaces and, heck, even an upscale restaurant on the rooftop.

 

The Shaw Center for the Arts opened March 5, 2005, during a glitzy weekend of exhibitions, music and performances that really haven’t stopped in the 10 years since. The center has become the beating heart of a resurgent downtown and a showpiece for the cosmopolitan direction Baton Rouge is headed.

 

When urban planner Andrés Duany mapped out Plan Baton Rouge in 1998—the roadmap for revitalizing downtown—a cultural center built around the empty Auto Hotel on Lafayette and Convention streets was the focal point. “That block was the center of it,” Davies says. “It wasn’t until we got into the community process for Plan Baton Rouge [with public meetings] that we realized it was the most important block of downtown.”

 

From the rooftop of the new Shaw Center, with its sweeping views of the river, residents would remark while sipping cocktails that “it doesn’t even feel like we’re in Baton Rouge anymore.” From that same vantage point, the movers and shakers could scope out what was next for downtown, such as the eyesores next door—formerly the Heidelberg Hotel and the Capitol House—which would be converted into the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center a year later. Several more redevelopments followed suit in the vicinity, and the activity hasn’t ceased.

 

The mixed-use development 440 on Third, home to the new Matherne’s grocery store, opened in January. The Commerce Building on Third and Laurel streets is preparing for a revamp as a residential development, and the IBM Service Center, with its own residential and commercial components, is nearing completion.

 

The Shaw Center block is still a hive of redevelopment activity 10 years later, with the Onyx Residences scheduled for completion in the fall. The mixed-use building will add 28 apartments and 5,600 square feet of street-level commercial space to the block on the corner of Third and Convention streets.

 

Davies sees it all as a domino effect spurred by the success of the Shaw Center. While Plan Baton Rouge was coming together, Duany told Davies, “It takes three good active blocks to generate a sense of community. One doesn’t do it.”

“And we’ve done better than that, obviously,” Davies says. “They are really like dominoes, and they began with the Shaw Center setting the flag—the big, immense, attractive flag—in the middle of downtown.”

 

http://www.225batonrouge.com/community/shaw-center-10-years-later

[timelordnerd]

The first theater show I was in was The Little Mermaid in 2006 by Playmakers. It was all in the Shaw Center and I'm honestly surprised it's already been ten years since its construction.

[dan326]

^Yeah it's doesn't seem like that long ago.

 

I remember when I first saw the Shaw Center. My dad used to work in the Indigo Hotel building so I remember we used to walk over and look inside the empty Auto Hotel building. When his office moved we didn't go over there for a few years, but since I was younger and didn't have as good a sense of time, it seemed like when I next saw the site, the Shaw Center it had popped up like magic on it.

 

I remember eveyone was so excited, we finally had something in Baton Rouge. I wonder if people got excited when they built the old and new State Capitols and or first "skyscraper".

Edited March 24, 2015 by dan326

[timelordnerd]

^Yeah it's doesn't seem like that long ago.

 

I remember when I first saw the Shaw Center. My dad used to work in the Indigo Hotel building so I remember we used to walk over and look inside the empty Auto Hotel building. When his office moved we didn't go over there for a few years, but since I was younger and didn't have as good a sense of time, it seemed like when I next saw the site, the Shaw Center it had popped up like magic on it.

 

I remember eveyone was so excited, we finally had something in Baton Rouge. I wonder if people got excited when they built the old and new State Capitols and or first "skyscraper".

Apparently they were.

[richyb83]

Thanks for the replies...hard to believe it's already been 10 years since the Shaw Center was built in 05'...I joined UP in early 06'...but did not start a thread on this until nearly the middle of 09'

 

Noticed people have a "love/hate" relationship" with the Shaw Center...I really like the out=of-the-box design & architecture...something different; not boring & bland like so many buildings in downtown BR....& It's a great compliment/contrast to the Old State Capitol next door & domed Planetarium . It's been referred to as the "Lantern on the Levee"...it took downtown/riverfront to another level. And to re-open the Hilton Capitol Center shortly there after (after being a dormant rats nest/eye sore with ferns growing out of the side of the windows for close to 20 years) completely transformed the area!

 

To think the Old State Capitol was almost torn down for a parking lot

Edited March 25, 2015 by richyb83

[dan326]

^I vaguely remember that being mentioned before. Downtown would definitely look different if more buildings had been preserved.

[richyb83]

The final piece to the Shaw Center Arts Block

After all of the delay...Construction has ramped up at the Onyx Residences (Third St. @ Convention St.)

Pardon the tough sun angle   I was rushed for the photo

This could go in several different threads

[richyb83]

[richyb83]

[richyb83]

[richyb83]