East Bay Center for the Performing Arts 

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East Bay Center for the Performing Arts

Architect: Mark Cavagnero Associates

Photographer: Tim Griffith

Recipient of an Award of Honor in the 2011 AIA East Bay Design Awards

Located in a neighborhood known as the Iron Triangle, the historically-significant Winters
Building is a former 1920’s dance hall and has been transformed into a new urban center for music and
dance. The East Bay Center for the Performing Arts is a nationally-recognized training and production
center, dedicated to the underserved youth of the community.

The project includes a complete new structure and build out of systems within the historic shell. At the exterior, a new glass storefront wraps the first floor façade with large, rhythmically-arranged openings intended to express the interior vitality of the center, while at the same time complementing the historic exterior façade of the upper stories. Designed for maximum flexibility for educational, performance, and administrative needs, the program includes classroom/performance spaces; a 200-seat auditorium with raked seating and a flat floor venue with flexible platform seating; and classrooms, practice studios, and offices.

Client statement: The primary objectives of the renovation project are grounded in East Bay Center’s core values of affecting endemic local violence, improving the scholastic performance of our youth, increasing their self-esteem, and nurturing parental, family and civic involvement in their education. As part of the City of Richmond’s urban redevelopment effort, the renovated facility will serve as leverage for $200 million of redevelopment projects in the chronically depressed downtown area of the city and at the same time benefit the larger community of Contra Costa County and the East Bay region.
Jury Comments: Gutsy. This could have been so easily messed up. This shows a tour de force ability
to take on the circumstances and have such an elegant result. We applaud the architect for the building’s grace. Like how it harkens back to the tough, industrial local shipbuilding history.