WVIZ and WCPN
Cleveland duo joins in restoring new quarters in theater district
Originally published in Current,
Dec. 16, 2002
By Steve Behrens
Cleveland's two major pubcasters, WVIZ-TV and WCPN-FM, will move into the city's theater district, physically consummating the merger that created a new parent company, ideastream, last year.
Ideastream's partner in redeveloping 1375 Euclid Ave. is the building's owner, Playhouse Square Foundation, a nonprofit that saved four major theaters from the wrecking ball more than 25 years ago and now operates the biggest U.S. theater complex outside of New York City.
The stations' new home will be the latest in a string of recent HQ projects in pubcasting [earlier article]. Major facilities have been completed in Philadelphia, Washington, New York, Houston, Atlanta, St. Louis and San Francisco, and are planned in Boston, St. Paul, Detroit, New Orleans, Hartford and elsewhere.
Playhouse Square and the pubcasters will share 90,000 square feet--the basement and the first two floors of the seven-story building--including a large space with movable seating that can serve as either TV studio or a theater for Playhouse Square's arts education.
The partners plan to begin renovations next spring and finish the job by mid-2004. Ideastream plans a capital campaign to raise its share of the $25 million to $30 million renovation costs.
"Our children and our teachers will be the beneficiaries of this," said Barbara Byrd-Bennett, c.e.o. of the Cleveland public school system and a board member of both nonprofits, speaking at a press conference Dec. 10, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.
The lead architects will be van Dijk Westlake Reed Leskosky, which has done 75 performing arts facilities, including some at Playhouse Square. Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates, which designed new facilities for NPR and Philadelphia's WHYY, will design the broadcast spaces. Communications Engineering Inc., which worked with Burt Hill on those projects, will serve as broadcast systems engineer and integrator.
Ideastream President Jerry Wareham says van Dijk Westlake got the job because of the team it assembled and because the lead firm is based in Cleveland.
Since its first wing was built in 1912, the building has housed offices of Stouffer's Foods, a public library, a furniture store and the radio station, WJW, where deejay Alan Freed first uttered the phrase "rock and roll" on the air. A women's club, the Intown Club will remain on the third floor.
The Playhouse Square area, adjacent to Cleveland State University, anchors the east end of Cleveland's once grand Euclid Avenue corridor, 14 blocks from the central downtown area of Public Square.
Architects for the Cleveland facility aim to create a high-tech "backstage" atmosphere. Pictured: rendering of openings to be cut between floors.
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Connecticut Public Broadcasting Originally published in Current, Jan. 13, 2003 Connecticut Public Broadcasting will move across town to a former IBM office building in Hartford. The state network sold its former headquarters-on a prominent corner of the Trinity College campus-to the college for $10 million. The nonprofit statewide network will take possession of its new building Jan. 31 [2002], gut the structure and begin moving employees into it next spring, says President Jerry Franklin. A capital campaign already has raised $26 million of its $30 million goal, covering the facility and equipment costs, he says. The remainder, still to be raised, will provide capital for programming. The network plans to rent out two of the six stories in the 67,000-square-foot facility on Asylum Avenue near St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. The network hired Jeter, Cook & Jepson as architects, Konover Construction as construction manager and Janson Design Group as broadcast architects. |
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Earlier feature: A surprising number of stations are planning or building facilities despite the 2002 recession. |
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