BLUEBARN theatre translates the upstart scrappiness and risk-taking ethos of its namesake theatre company into built form. The project began with a donated plot of land and an open minded developer. The theatre anchors a multi-part urban scheme which includes a mixed-use residential building (Boxcar 10) and a privately owned public park. The BLUEBARN itself is a hybrid proscenium, black box, and environmental theatre with a direct connection to an outdoor performance space. The remaining program is organized concentrically around the house and stage with the back-of-house operations arranged against the party wall with Boxcar 10. The building’s materiality is explicit and unexpected: burnished unit masonry, reclaimed wood, custom brick, weathering steel sheet metal cladding, and a custom fabricated exterior screen of welded rebar. In collaboration with the client, we commissioned artists Michael Morgan, Jim Woodfill, Daniel Toberer, and Chris Kemp to design and build integrated functional building elements.


Please see www.actual.ac to see more images of this project as well as images of many others.