PROVIDENCE – The Providence Performing Arts Center, known as PPAC for short, is planning to build a new rehearsal hall on top of its historic building at 220 Weybosset St. in the downtown area.
The added space will be a benefit not only to PPAC but also the local economy, said Michael Abbott, of Newport Collaborative Architects, who is designing the expansion. It will allow for performers and production crew members to spend weeks in the downtown Providence location preparing new touring shows, Abbott said, which will happen two or three times each year.
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“This is a really important addition for PPAC because PPAC is now teching shows here, which means that they are creating shows before they go out on the road,” said Abbott, who was also behind the expansion of the main stage inside the building that started in 1994. “It’s really, really critical to the viability of these new touring shows to be able to rehearse beforehand. They’ll be here for several weeks for a show, which is a great economic benefit for the city, to actually have the performers and crews here, more than just the normal week running up to a show.”
The nonprofit theater company recently came before the Downtown Design Review Committee and received approval for an application to alter the building, with the new one-level addition proposed to go on top of the building’s single-story dressing room wing at the corner of Richmond and Pine streets.
The proposed addition in the rear of the building also includes conceptual design plans with new signage as part of the addition, reading “Providence” on one side, and “Performing Arts Center” on the other. However, PPAC will have to return to the Downtown Design Review Committee for approval of the signage.
“So many people park at the new parking garage and come up Richmond Street, and there’s no signage anywhere on the rear of the building that indicates what this is,” Abbott said. “We think it’s very important to have a little bit of signage to say, ‘We’re here, you’ve arrived,’ so people unfamiliar with the facility will know they’ve gotten to the theater.”
Christopher Ise, principal planner for Providence, said the 18-foot tall, box-like addition is a “very straightforward” project, which includes plated brick to match the exterior brick walls of the main theater, with a couple horizontal terracotta bands wrapping around the structure. The addition is under 5,000 square feet, he said.
The project includes a new egress and an elevator extension linking the main theater and the addition, Ise said. There’s also a deck on the roof of the addition, with black metal railings, which are set back to minimize their visibility from the street, he said.
“We’ve met with [PPAC managers] to look at some designs, and they’ve been vetted to get to where we are today,” said Ise, who later added that going on tours of the property is his “favorite thing.”
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @LaRockPBN.
