Transforming Chester’s Odeon The 2½ years construction project to transform Chester’s Art Deco Odeon cinema into an international cultural centre has reached its completion on time and on budget, opening to the public on Thursday 11 May 2017. Storyhouse brings a theatre and cinema back to Chester after a decade long absence with collaboration and partnership at the very heart of its establishment.
Storyhouse aims to connect people through storytelling and seeks to create great art. It strives to innovate and democratise its work, in order to empower communities. It asks two vital social questions: who are we and how shall we live? Storyhouse incorporates the Grade 2 listed shell of the locally loved former 1936 Odeon cinema and a new brick and translucent glass extension. The library, restaurant/café and boutique cinema are housed in the cinema’s streamlined Art Deco interior and the 800-seat main auditorium, 150-seat flexible studio along with the bar and shared backstage facilities are housed in the stunning new brick and copper clad extension.
The former cinema space with its decorative plasterwork has become the main public focus of the building with a restaurant/café and library winding its way across two floors and the boutique cinema housed in a glass-clad ‘lightbox’ suspended on the first-floor mezzanine. At night, Storyhouse transforms into a restaurant and bar as the foyer is animated with a film projection shown on a new screen flown into the old proscenium arch. Theatre audiences pass through and under the cinema screen to access the main auditorium which is housed in a brick-clad structure, encircled by open stairs and walkways which are visible from the street through translucent glass cladding.
The main theatre seats 800 in a traditional proscenium format with a pit, circle and gallery. During the summer months and during the Christmas season, a thrust stage will be built above the stalls, converting the theatre into an intimate 500-seat venue. The theatre will become the natural home for Storyhouse’s home-produced summer festival programme of Shakespeare, new writing, chamber music and spoken word performance. The Garret Theatre is sited above the main auditorium. This versatile studio space seats 150 and can double-up as a rehearsal or events space with its own catering facilities and fourth floor bar with panoramic views over the city.
The ambition 1. To tell inspirational stories to our communities. 2. To create a unique home for our communities to tell their stories. 3. To deliver an international model for cultural innovation, through the full integration of theatre, cinema and library services. 4. To build one of the country's most celebrated combined-arts producing houses. 5. To démocratise live, digital and written storytelling and empower our communities as storytellers. 6. To celebrate the diversity of our communities, and imagine new futures, as we ask 'who are we' and 'how shall we live'.
Architectural brief Challenges Converting Chester’s redundant Odeon cinema into a ground-breaking cultural centre presented significant challenges to the architectural team from Bennetts Associates. The old building’s Art Deco brick walls and historically significant cinema interior had to be retained, but the existing spaces in the building were totally un-suitable for the kind of theatre and cinema spaces that Storyhouse wanted to create. The Storyhouse site also included an old office building which could be demolished to create space for the new theatres, but it was sitting directly over known Roman remains which determined where the new basements and foundations could go.
The site was narrow and long, and it was clear from the early stages that the 150-seat studio space which Storyhouse required would have to be built on top of the main theatre space. Prominent vertical circulation routes would be required to allow audiences to get to their seats from the ground-level foyer. Fitting three different types of performance space in the building, and surrounding them with library space presented acoustic challenges and the design works hard to keep sound contained.
Solutions The Bennetts Associates team brought their experience of other theatres to the project including the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and The Old Vic, both of which had proposed significant change to listed theatre buildings. They knew that it was possible to justify alterations to historic buildings in order to sustain their future use, and as a result a bold set of proposals emerged for the Odeon which would turn the challenges posed by the Storyhouse brief into compelling architectural opportunities.
The key ideas which led to the current scheme were: • Build the technically complex theatre, studio and support spaces on the site of the old office building as a contemporary glass ‘twin’ to the old Odeon. • Remove the Odeon’s balcony and replace it with a mezzanine floor within the old cinema. This made space for a new 100-seat cinema screen in a glass box, above a foyer, bar and café at ground level. • Create a glazed gap between the brick Odeon and its new extension, and use this space to hang a new main stair painted red and connecting all the floors of the building. • Use the streamlined plasterwork of the old cinema screen to frame the opening between foyer and theatres, and fly in a screen to create an opportunity for foyer events. • Stick to a simple palette of materials for the new elements, Brick to match the old Odeon, and white cast glass, with copper to pick out the studio and bar on the skyline.
Key Features Storyhouse includes a large main theatre space with a 20m high flytower and up to 800 seats, a 150-seat studio with a dedicated bar, a 100-seat boutique cinema and a city library with over 700m of shelving throughout the building. These functions are supported by a large foyer and café, and large backstage with dressing rooms and company facilities.
When the team first visited the site in 2012 it was clear that externally the 1936 Odeon was well-preserved. The largely blank volume of the main cinema space is articulated with a composition of horizontal and vertical brick patterning emphasizing corner-towers and a rusticated base. A further brick tower and cantilevered canopy mark the entrance and the whole composition is grounded to street-scale by a matching row of shop units. Inside, the main cinema volume had been crudely sub-divided into five screens and many original features had been removed. Stripping out these sub-divisions and the redundant balcony structure revealed an enormous internal volume which retains much of its original streamlined art deco plasterwork. The plasterwork ceiling and wall features form a series of curving planes and profiles which trace the complex geometry of the room and lead the eye down to the screen itself.
With the seats removed and floor levelled, the main Odeon volume has become the focal point of the new cultural centre, containing the main café and bar at ground level and at its centre the new 100-seat cinema screen. The cinema is a distinct object clad in back-lit cast glass and accessed from a new mezzanine level which also provides book-lined library study space and foyer circulation. The curved shape of the mezzanine edge follows that of the former cinema balcony, revealing the full scale of the proscenium plasterwork which once surrounded the former Odeon’s screen. With the screen removed, the foyer space now continues right through the old proscenium opening to reveal the brick-clad main auditorium of the new-build theatre. Red-painted steel stairs and walkways giving access to the theatre and the studio theatre above are suspended like theatre scenery in the glazed gap between the old and new buildings.
The new extension containing the theatre and studio has a similar footprint to the existing Odeon, but the main theatre’s flytower, and the elevated volume of the studio theatre result in greater overall height. The extension is conceived as a companion-piece to the Odeon, the main auditorium and flytower volume which form the armature of the extension are clad in brick, diagonally bonded and textured to express its non-loadbearing status, and created from a brick blend selected to complement the existing Odeon’s facades. Steel-framed audience circulation walkways flank the brick auditorium enclosed by glazed cladding which wraps the entire extension building to the height of the existing Odeon, punctured only by the brick flytower and copper-clad studio volume which appears to sit on the theatre’s roof as a separate block.
The main theatre itself is designed to operate as an 800-seat theatre with a programme of touring productions for some of the year, but is reconfigurable to a 500-seat thrust-stage for locally produced work during the festival season. Acoustically isolated from the main theatre, the 150-seat studio sits on a series of steel transfer beams and columns which visibly extend down to the ground on either side of the brick auditorium volume. The studio has a dedicated bar with a fully-glazed façade to the south giving panoramic views over the city of Chester.
The city’s new public library is completely integrated into the scheme. Books will be accessible in all the key spaces within the historic Odeon, including the café/ restaurant and circulation areas. The row of shop units which were part of the original Odeon development now house a dedicated children’s library with a story-telling space, and quiet study spaces for adult readers. With its day-long programme of events and activities the building presents the opportunity to attract the broadest possible audience from Chester and beyond, helping to revitalise the city and at the same time to re-invent the role of civic cultural buildings in the twenty-first century.
Opening programme Storyhouse will manage and programme over 20 public spaces busy with storytelling activity, including a restaurant and bar. The centre will be open over 12 hours a day, seven days a week. At peak times, 1,200 customers will be in the building.
Artistic vision • The opening season will see our repertory company delivering four productions (Beggars Opera, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar & Alice), operating across the Storyhouse main stage and the Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre stage. • Storyhouse's newly formed repertory company is the largest in the UK outside the RSC or National Theatre. The gender-balanced company is made up of 26 actors, two trainees and three musicians. • The Women of the World Festival (WOW, London Southbank) will take place 20-21 May 2017, celebrating the role of women in our modern society & the challenges they face. • The autumn touring season will bring an eclectic and experimental programme of opera, comedy, music, drama and dance to Chester. • Festivals and seasons that include digital art commissions, a flourishing music and literature programme and daily film screenings will offer year-round activity across all performance spaces at Storyhouse. • The inaugural home-produced family Christmas show and first stage adaptation for Enid Blyton's The Secret Seven will round off the year, taking Storyhouse into a packed 2018.
Community engagement & learning • A dynamic youth engagement programme will provide access to mentoring, apprenticeships and internships, including accredited courses at the University of Chester. • A year round creative library programme will provide literacy and numeracy support to young children and bring families together through learning and play. • Formal education initiatives will provide a basis for local schools to learn outside a traditional classroom environment. • The Young Company will nurture local talent across the spectrum of creative and cultural activity. • Bespoke access programmes will engage all members of society at every stage of their life, reducing social isolation and creating a sense of togetherness. This will include BSL screenings, dementia-friendly shows and cross-generational workshops. • Outreach work will see us intensively engage with the most marginalised communities in Chester – bringing Storyhouse’s resources to the spaces in which they feel most safe. • Accredited volunteering schemes will provide workplace opportunities for over 55s, those not in education or employment, people with disability and young people at risk of homelessness.
Facts & figures The largest public building ever in Chester with 7,500 square metres of public space across four floors. State of the art theatre spaces, including a uniquely flexible main house, which converts seasonally from a proscenium to a thrust stage. Year-round programme of theatre, touring work, live art, creative engagement activity and major public art commission. Home produced summer and Christmas seasons with a gender-balanced ensemble of actors playing in rep across multiple productions both in Storyhouse and at the Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre.
The library will offer a free visitor attraction and an exceptional learning and community resource, with more than 300,000 learning visits expected each year. Boutique cinema screening a range of classic, independent and blockbuster films. Over 25 charities, locally based artists, primary schools, high schools and higher and further education establishments in Cheshire West and Chester plus hundreds of local people have already been consulted on Storyhouse’s engagement programme.
The 150-seat studio sits on a series of steel transfer beams and columns which visibly extend down to the ground on either side of the brick auditorium volume. Storyhouse will be the result of over four year’s hard work involving over one hundred designers and technicians across all the disciplines.
For the designers one of the biggest challenges has been understanding and responding to the needs and requests of the people who will use the spaces. Removed five cinema-room sub-divisions and the redundant balcony structure revealing an enormous internal volume which retains much of its original streamlined art deco plasterwork. The main theatre itself is designed to operate as an 800-seat receiving house during the autumn and spring, and is reconfigurable to a 500-seat thrust-stage for home produced work during summer and Christmas.
The cafe, foyer, library and cinema functions re-occupy the existing Odeon’s Art Deco interior volumes. Part-housed in the listed shell of a redundant Odeon cinema which dates from 1936. This Odeon is a well-preserved example of its type, steel-framed with well-detailed brick facades. The cinema is a distinct object clad in back-lit cast glass and accessed from a new mezzanine level which also provides book-lined library study space and foyer circulation.
The studio has a dedicated bar with a fully-glazed façade to the south giving panoramic views over the city of Chester. The city’s new public library is completely integrated into the scheme books will be accessible in all the key spaces within the historic Odeon, including the café/bar and circulation areas.
The transformative theatre Storyhouse has a forward looking adaptable theatre with its own character. It has been designed for a blend of producing and receiving work and will have a coherent home-grown “season” led by the Storyhouse team. The original brief for the new theatre was both exciting and challenging - there are few spaces of this scale which successfully combine a thrust and proscenium format. It was identified that the former Odeon cinema was a site with significant potential and theatre designers Charcoalblue embarked on a design to develop the found space into a multi-purpose arts centre and a new home for Chester’s existing library.
Storyhouse main space is a modern interpretation of a traditional proscenium theatre, designed to the highest standards of audience comfort and sightlines for an End Stage room. The same rigour has been applied to the adaptation of the space; creating a dynamic thrust room within the envelope of the proscenium house. Charcoalblue recognised that a common mistake in adaptable rooms is to downgrade the importance of the thrust. Flexible theatres that are not truly flexible can provide limitations to the space.
They felt that there was little point in incorporating lots of expensive automated equipment that can reduce the flexibility. Better to provide a room which can be adapted, and build a framework inside the theatre which can be changed and reconfigured by the creative teams producing the work allowing Storyhouse to develop its artistic and creative identity and reflect the ever-changing artistic ambitions.
This flexibility within the mixed-use theatre space requires flexibility within the technical systems to work well not just the seats! The room needs to work hard to cater for both formations. Above the auditorium, a series of lighting bridges provide positions for rigging technical equipment and locating follow-spot positions.
These bridges have been carefully sited to provide the optimum angle for lighting in both thrust and End Stage formats. This technical level also provides access to rigging positions over the thrust stage. The stage lighting and audio visual systems have been designed to accommodate both formations with neither format being placed in a higher value bracket to the other. The approach to ensuring that both formats are served equally has remained throughout the design phases and will provide Storyhouse with all the technical tools it needs to operate a strong varied touring and produced works.
It was recognised that the building needed further artistic provision above the main house and a 150-seat studio theatre was incorporated. This intimate space will most likely become the hardest working room in the building. Retractable seating was incorporated to allow for a flat floor for workshops and rehearsals but as a performance room its intimacy defines the space allowing for a close relationship between actor and audience. This is a room where Storyhouse can develop new ideas in readiness for a transfer to the main stage.
Environmental aspects The building design has been developed with energy efficiency in mind, both in the architectural design and the application of the building services installations. One of the most important decisions made was to re-use the old Odeon, upgrading the old inefficient building to meet modern environmental standards but keeping much of the old structure and external walls. Bennetts Associates and Foreman Roberts worked hard to make sure the whole building is energy-efficient and can be operated effectively and economically.
A three-step process was used to develop the energy strategy for Storyhouse: 1. Reduce energy demand through good design and construction measures. • Natural ventilation to large areas of the building with opening windows. • High thermal efficiency to the new building envelope.
2. Provide efficient mechanical and electrical systems • Efficient cooling systems to high heat-load areas such as the performance and cinema spaces. • Efficient Under-seat air supply to the main theatre space. • Energy-efficient LED lighting throughout.
3. Provide on-site renewable energy where possible • On-site renewable energy from photovoltaic cells on the roof of the Odeon building.
Storyhouse has been designed to be as inclusive as possible in design, and to be used by everyone, including: • Visitors to the theatre, library and cinema, audience and performers; • People working in and volunteering in the theatre, library and cinema; • The wider community.
Storyhouse incorporates best practice in accessible design in both public and back-of-house areas and reflects the client’s high aspirations. The approach to accessibility has considered the needs of all users including people with mobility impairments, people with visual impairments, deaf people, older people and small children.
During the design process the team worked with representatives of local disability groups and with Cheshire West and Chester’s access team to enable feedback to be given on the proposals. The original Odeon building had no lift access or compliant step-free entrances, as part of the Storyhouse project lifts and ramps have been incorporated and disabled access facilities include the first fully accessible ‘Changing Places’ WC in the city.
