The Hanna Theatre is the last of five theaters in Cleveland’s Playhouse Square to be renovated and “reimagined” for modern audiences. |
Between February 1921 and November 1922 five theaters opened along a short stretch of Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, all of them presenting silent movies, legitimate theater, and vaudeville. During the Great Depression, several of the theaters in the unofficial “Playhouse Square” converted to movie theaters, but they all fell into a death spiral after World War II. By 1969, four of the five were forced to close.
Only the Hanna Theatre stayed alive, limping along into the '80s with local theater productions and the occasional Broadway preview, until it too went dark in 1989. Ten years later, an investment group led by Playhouse Square—a preservation organization that had already saved Hanna's cousins, the Allen, Ohio, State, and Palace theaters—acquired the historic Hanna Building with the goal of making the Hanna Theatre the permanent home of the Great Lakes Theater Festival.
For local A/E firm Westlake Reed Leskosky, the task of revitalizing the Hanna was compounded by the added assignment of making the space conducive to live concerts, stand-up comedy, corporate outings, and other events for which it was never intended.
WRL's new design significantly reconfigured the original 1,400-seat proscenium stage theater into an intimate 548-seat thrust stage, fully flexible in three independent sections, and adaptable to a 572-seat proscenium mode. Equipped with hydraulic lifts that can raise and lower parts of the stage at a rate of up to two feet per second as well as a new structurally independent fly system and improved acoustical, A/V, and lighting systems, the venue provides unparalleled production flexibility. General contractor Turner Construction completed the project in 8½ months, in time for the theater's opening performance September 20, 2008. —Jeffrey Yoders, Senior Associate Editor
Related Stories
Giants 400 | Aug 19, 2022
2022 Giants 400 Report: Tracking the nation's largest architecture, engineering, and construction firms
Now 46 years running, Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report rankings the largest architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. This year a record 519 AEC firms participated in BD+C's Giants 400 report. The final report includes more than 130 rankings across 25 building sectors and specialty categories.
Cultural Facilities | Aug 5, 2022
A time and a place: Telling American stories through architecture
As the United States enters the year 2026, it will commence celebrating a cycle of Sestercentennials, or 250th anniversaries, of historic and cultural events across the land.
Museums | Jun 28, 2022
The California Science Center breaks grounds on its Air and Space Center
The California Science Center—a hands-on science center in Los Angeles—recently broke ground on its Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.
Headquarters | Jun 21, 2022
Walmart combines fitness and wellness in associates’ center that’s part of its new Home Office plan
Duda | Paine’s design leads visitors on a “journey.”
Cultural Facilities | Jun 15, 2022
Gehry-designed Children’s Institute aims to foster community outreach in L.A.’s Watts neighborhood
The Children’s Institute (CII) in Los Angeles will open a 200,000-sf campus designed by Frank Gehry this summer.
Cultural Facilities | Jun 10, 2022
After 10 Years, Taiwan’s new Taipei Music Center Reaches the Finish Line
RUR Architecture has finished the Taipei Music Center (TMC), turning a 22-acre (9-hectare) site into a new urban arts district.
Projects | Mar 24, 2022
A Hollywood home for creatives
A Hollywood development will serve as a collaborative center for artists, students, and those in the entertainment industry.
Cultural Facilities | Mar 10, 2022
A ‘reimagined’ David Geffen Hall in New York is on track to open this fall
Its half-billion-dollar reconstruction is positioning this performance space as an integral key to luring people to the city again.
Performing Arts Centers | Mar 8, 2022
Cincinnati Ballet’s new center embodies the idea that dance is for everyone
Cincinnati Ballet had become a victim of its own success, according to company president and CEO Scott Altman. “We were bursting at the seams in our old building. We had simply outgrown the facility,” Altman told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
University Buildings | Feb 18, 2022
On-campus performing arts centers and museums can be talent magnets for universities
Cultural facilities are changing the way prospective students and parents view higher education campuses.