Page 28 - ArchDC_Fall 2020

The renovated main ballroom of Webster Hall.

Ready and
Ready and

Waiting
Waiting

Photo © 2019 Joseph Reed |
Two Renovated Cultural Projects Shawmut Design and Construction
Look Forward to Welcoming Us Back

by Ronald O’Rourke

Although most of the country’s performance spaces and six years later in the Renaissance Revival style, the building
museums are dark due to the pandemic, they’re looking forward was closed for renovation in August 2017 and reopened with its
to when they can again welcome visitors. The jurors this year new improvements in April 2019. The renovation was designed
honored two renovated cultural projects that hope to turn their by OTJ Architects, a firm with offices in Washington, DC, New
lights back on sometime soon. York, Boston, Miami, Charlotte, and San Francisco.
OTJ “was engaged to lead a program of improvements that
Chapter Design Award in would ensure the iconic venue’s continued relevance while
Historic Resources & Preservation preserving the character that has earned it a hallowed place
in New York nightlife,” the firm said. On the building’s front,
Webster Hall new grade-level doors were added to improve access for all
New York, NY users, including those with disabilities and workers delivering
supplies. To accommodate the new openings, some of the
OTJ Architects façade’s original terra cotta panels were carefully relocated,
Interior Designers: Farnum and Lee and the bulbous band running horizontally across the façade,
Structural/MEP/Acoustical Engineers: ARUP which is covered in tiny tiles that have been painted over, was
General Contractor: Shawmut Design and Construction sensitively modified.
On the inside, a space now known as the Ritz Lounge was
Webster Hall, one of New York’s most historic assembly halls, reimagined as a sleek, bar-equipped “urbane common area,”
is a nightclub and concert venue located about three blocks and square footage reclaimed from that space was used to create
south of Union Square, in the East Village part of Manhattan. two new green rooms for performers. A newly added elevator
Originally built in 1886 in the Queen Anne style and expanded for both passengers and freight makes each floor accessible to
those with disabilities and facilitates show load-ins.
26 READY AND WAITING