Design team reinvents midtown moviehouse.

With a gut renovation and a touch of theatrical magic, a design team led by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP has transformed the former Worldwide Plaza movie multiplex into an exciting cluster of five theaters for live productions.

The imaginative project, carried out for the theatrical producing partnership Dodger Stage Holding, creates a surprising indoor theater district, with the different venues and public amenities grouped along an "underground street."

Located in Midtown Manhattan at 340 West 50th Street, just steps outside the Broadway theater district, the $20 million, 61,300 square foot Dodger Stages is meant to establish "a small community of theaters in the heart of the city," according to Michael David, a principal with Dodger Stage Holding.

As many as five different shows, potentially from five different producers, can run concurrently in Dodger Stages, serving an audience of up to 2,000 theatergoers. Dodger Stages is owned by Equity Office Properties Trust and will celebrated its formal opening on September 9, 2004.

Collaborating with Beyer Blinder Belle on the team for Dodger Stages are Sachs Morgan Studio, in charge of theater design; Klara Zieglerova, principal designer of public spaces; and 2x4, Inc., in charge of environmental graphic design. Together, they have used the staples of stagecraft--colored lights, scrims, projections and props--to convert a dim and claustrophobic movie multiplex into a lively new public gathering place, where patrons of different shows will mingle freely.

The surprises at Dodger Stages start at street level. Through the windows on 50th Street, passersby will now glimpse a crystal chandelier, 10 feet tall by 6 feet wide--the sort of fixture that might be expected to hang from the dome of a venerable Broadway theater, but not in the small, low-ceilinged foyer of a 1980s building. Upon entering the foyer, though, patrons will see that the floor drops away, and that the chandelier is actually hanging over the escalator and staircase that lead down to the theaters. Adding to the effect, the designers have created an ever-moving interior "sky" by projecting images onto a canted scrim of metal mesh, suspended over the entire entrance space.

Upon descending past banks of theatrical lights to the mezzanine level, patrons will discover the first suggestion of an indoor street. Wayfinding devices--words, numbers, directional arrows and even lane markers--are painted onto the floor, in imitation of roadway signs. The area around the escalator and stair landing is also the setting for a large bar, open to both theatergoers and the general public, where visitors will first notice the contrast in Dodger Stages between the new high-gloss finishes (such as plexiglass and stainless steel) and older, exposed textures. In the spirit of Off-Broadway theater, which has long flourished by reinventing existing space, the designers have laid bare some surfaces, such as a rough concrete wall, and have showcased others--for example, by building lightboxes around structural columns.

The single largest architectural move becomes evident when visitors go beyond the bar and into the mezzanine lobby. When the building was a cinema multiplex, the public never circulated on this level; the mezzanine was exclusively back-of-house space, used by the film projectionists. Beyer Blinder Belle has now moved back a wall to open this space, carving out an ample double-height lobby. Patrons on the mezzanine may enter the balconies of the two larger theaters by passing down a walkway, which runs the length of the lobby's east side. To enter the smaller theaters, patrons may cross west over the lobby on either of two bridges.

Patrons may also enter the theaters at the building's bottom level, where the effect of the lobby is at its most dramatic. A wall of light occupies most of the west side of the space, rising to its full double height. Light projections play across the metal-mesh scrim that covers the wall, creating an effect similar to the "indoor sky" of the foyer. The light wall also serves as a cue for audiences. Large numerals--one for each of the five theaters--light up behind the scrim to tell patrons that the show is about to begin.

The lobby is the place for another major contrast between elegant and rough finishes. A custom-designed fluorescent light fixture runs in a linear pattern over the lobby, reinforcing the geometry. Above this sleek element are exposed ducts and pipes, as complex and industrial-looking as the fittings of a submarine. Between these two layers of the ceiling are programmable colored lights, which vary both the mood and the apparent dimensions of the space.

Treating the floor level of the lobby as a theatrical set, the designers have incorporated furnishings from a scene shop: an antique sofa, a rococo mirror. Near the coat checkroom (a rare amenity in New York theaters) stands a dress form dummy. Bringing the theme of the indoor street to its culmination, the front ends of motorcycles are parked at various places at the lobby's far end.

All this is prelude, of course, to the experience patrons will get inside the theaters. Dodger Stages has two 499-seat theaters, each of which is 5,500 square feet; two 360-seat theaters, each of which is 4,400 square feet; and one 199-seat theater, which is 2,500 square feet. Visually simple and undistracting, these spaces are designed to be highly flexible for producers, convenient for performers and comfortable for theatergoers. Seats are spacious and feature lumbar support. Ample provision is made for wheelchair seating. Sightlines are unimpeded.

The design team for Dodger Stages is comprised of Richard L. Blinder, Erik Chu and Don Lasker for Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP; Ann Sachs and Roger Morgan for Sachs Morgan Studio; Klara Zieglerova; and Michael Rock and Sung Kim for 2x4, Inc.