Crosstown Theater

1350 Concourse Ave, Memphis TN 38104 United States

Building Area (sf): 25,400 sf

Completion: July 2018

Architect of Record:

LRK

Tony Pellicciotti , Jonathan Smith, Megan Hoover

• Owner/Client:
• General Contractor: Grinder, Taber & Grinder
• Electrical: Electrical Consultants: OGCB
  MEP Consultants: OGCB
  Structural Consultants: Structural Design Group
  Interior Designer: LRK
  Architect of Record #2: Spatial Affairs Bureau
  Civil Engineer: SRCE
  Theatre Consultants: Theatre Projects
  Acoustical Consultant: Akustiks
  
• Engineering:
  
• Other:
  
• Photography:
  1 – Chad Mellon
  
  2 – Chad Mellon. The Crosstown Theater is embedded in the 1.3- million-square-foot Crosstown Concourse campus.
  
  3 – Firm. The theater sits adjacent to a large back porch balcony and in-line with the main entrance to Crosstown Concourse. Not only are vital theater functions housed in the building protrusion, the large blank façade serves as a projection screen for the balcony across the plaza.
  
  4 – (photos) Ken West, (drawings) Firm. The clients desired a theater that was fully versatile and able to be rearranged for any type of performance, activity, or event. Carefully designed and created by a local artist, the wooden wall panels serve both the acoustics and the aesthetics.
  
  5 – Jamie Harmon. Because of special collaborations with artists and theater consultants, performances at the theater are both intimate and technically high quality.
  
  6 – Ken West. Each component of the theater supports the aesthetic design of the space while also serving important functions.
  
  7 – Jamie Harmon. Purely utilitarian components like fire stairs become integral to the overall experience of the theater.
  
  8 – Megan Hoover, Firm. Each side of the form was carefully considered and the building skin folds and shifts to accommodate the site.
  
  9 – Firm. The theater was tight and varied- bordered by loading docks, mechanical equipment buildings, and public plazas. Each space and component had to be located to both fit within the boundaries and serve the theater at the highest level.
  
  10 – Chad Mellon
  
  

Crosstown Theater is an intimate 425-seat black box theater hosting programming and events organized by performing arts/music/film groups, from national headliners to Memphis-based performers.

The Crosstown Theater, symbolically built on the foundation of the original powerplant, is the heart of Crosstown Concourse, providing energy and soul to the development. The Concourse’s exceptional cast of public spaces and dining venues, provide a welcoming, accessible, and community-centered pre-function experience for the theater. In addition, the theater complements Crosstown Concourse’s adjacent 40,000-square-foot contemporary arts center, enabling intense interdisciplinary collaboration.

Designed from the inside out, the theater’s interior spaces push the envelope, giving shape to the building’s exterior. The boxy, dark gray exterior is emblematic of the black-box theater. The rake of the seating line inscribed on the west exterior extends beyond the building mass to a cantilevered control room providing shelter over the building’s entrance. Opposite the public face, performers easily access the theater for direct load-in/load-out access along the original rail line path that connected to the powerplant.

This world-class performance space is designed to be highly tunable and immensely flexible. The space is intimate and accommodates a wide range of performances. The space is supported by theatrical technologies to modify seating, architectural acoustics, amplified acoustics, lighting scenes, and cinema. The sculptural wood acoustical paneling was made up of 9,000 individual pieces and assembled by hand by local artisans.

Sharing resources with the Concourse creates unique opportunities for the venue. By creating a symbiotic relationship where the Concourse and its theater are activated by each other, the arts effectively anchor the development, strengthen community connections, and drive social, economic, and operational sustainability.