Auerbach Pollock Friedlander provided theatre and audio-video consulting for the redevelopment of the Paramount Theatre and the adjacent “Arcade” building which is the former site of the Bijou Theatre and B.F. Keith’s Theatre, the first vaudeville theatre to use electric lighting.

The project is a combination of adaptive re-use, renovation and new infill construction including a 596-seat proscenium theatre that occupies the footprint and recreates the original art-deco finishes of the 1,500-seat Paramount Theatre which originally opened in 1932 as a movie theatre. A completely new stage house, sized for live performance, has replaced the original platform which was designed for film. The increased depth of the stage and inclusion of an orchestra pit required careful redesign of the seating to assure excellent sightlines and to allow connection to the existing main level and mezzanine lobbies in which the historic finishes were largely preserved and refurbished. The new stage connects directly with a new scene dock, loading dock and scene shop. The flytower provides a full working grid and is equipped with a combination of 26 manual counterweight rigging linesets and 15 fully motorized variable speed battens.

Additional program areas for which Auerbach Pollock Friedlander provided consulting and design services include the experimental 125-seat flexible black box studio theatre. The space incorporates the historic façade of the “Arcade” building including its arched windows all of which are equipped with automated black out blinds.

The Bright Family Screening Room includes a 180-seat a film sound stage, rehearsal and media studios, practice rooms, classrooms, faculty offices and a scene shop which is designed to support all of Emerson’s theatres. The space has a full 35-mm, 16-mm film projection and digital cinema projection systems providing six projection formats. A full Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound system provides superb sound quality in the space. When not being used for cinema, the space is also designed to support lectures and related video presentations. The top four floors of the facility provide dormitory space for 260 students.

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Client: Elkus/Manfredi Architects
Owner: Emerson College

Photography: Peter Vanderwarker

Article from inLeague, a publication of the League of Historic American Theatres
Posted with permission.

Press Release

Emerson College, Paramount Center