New Jersey Performing Arts Center

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The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, in Newark, New Jersey

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), located in the heart of an emerging downtown Newark, New Jersey, United States, is the sixth largest performing arts center in the United States. Home of the Grammy Award-winning New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, NJPAC has been widely cited as a catalyst in the revitalization of New Jersey's largest city, attracting over five million visitors (including more than 900,000 children) in its first ten years of operation. It is located near the Passaic River waterfront, east of the Rutgers-Newark and New Jersey Institute of Technology campuses and two blocks north of Seton Hall University School of Law.

To reach out to the community, NJPAC offers several programs to primary schools students that let them interact with artist, explore music, and even create murals to be exhibited in the halls.

1 Performance Halls and Other Facilities
2 History
3 Future
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Performance Halls and Other Facilities

Prudential Hall, "The 2,750-seat hall…is breathtakingly glamorous…classical in form and spirit: four-tiered and horseshoe-shaped, glittering with light. The color scheme varies slightly from the traditional red and gold. There's red galore, but in place of gilded plaster, the tiers are faced with panels of beautiful golden wood…(the) stage and auditorium have been combined into one warm, embracing room. The region has not seen as fabulous a new hall since Philip Johnson's New York State Theater opened its doors three decades ago."

--- Herbert Muschamp, The New York Times

Victoria Hall, "The 514-seat Victoria Theater is a gem of more modest size and cut. (It is) a smoky amethyst of a room, with walls of gray and rose brick and seating upholstered in an iridescent fabric that shifts in tone from green to plum."

--- Herbert Muschamp, The New York Times

The Chase Room, The elegant, intimate Chase Room, which boasts a fabulous view of the City's skyline, is home to NJPAC's popular Cabaret performance series.

Theater Square Grill, Theater Square Grill features a fine selection of contemporary American cuisine. On show nights, Theater Square Grill offers a price fixe menu before show time. The Theater Square Grill Lounge offers a casual, social atmosphere as well as a delectable menu of appetizers and drink specials. Click here for menus and more. Reservations are advised for pre-performance dining.

Calcada, Calçada, NJPAC's casual outdoor restaurant, is open from May through September. Situated on a brick patio between NJPAC's grand lobby and the Newark riverfront, Calçada offers fine al fresco dining, an outdoor bar and an exhibition kitchen. Enhancing the fun atmosphere are brilliant colored tables of inlaid Italian glass. The menu offers wood-roasted fish, steaks and game, stone oven pizzas, an extensive chilled seafood bar, and North and South American classics. Reservations are advised for pre-performance dining.

[edit] History

The State of New Jersey decided to build a world class performing arts center in 1986, when then Governor of New Jersey Thomas Kean appointed a committee to decide the location and the needs of New Jersey's performing arts organization. They chose Newark over other cities because of the density of the surrounding areas, proximity to New York City, highway and rail access to the site, and a location inside a dying city in need of revitalization. The last reason was considered especially important, since government authorities had long forsaken the city, becoming a ghetto for minorities in notorious housing projects. A major goal of the NJPAC was to help in revitalization of the city, bringing people back into blighted areas and provide jobs for local businesses.

All development in Newark after the 1967 Newark riots had been closed commercial spaces that alienated the local community. The planning commission decided that the new center would directly integrated into the city, encouraged walking, and provided a plaza for the city. Previous redevelopment schemes in Newark had all involved skyways that connected all the main office buildings to Newark Penn Station above street level, further segregating the city. The master plan, executed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill consisted of plazas and pedestrian boulevards, joining major thoroughfares.

After a selection process, the board chose Barton Myers as the lead architect, based on his experience with theaters and his contextual buildings. They instructed him to build a complex that was the opposite of the Kennedy Center or Lincoln Center, and more like the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Instead of a monument to the arts, Myers saw it as another part of the city tying it to residents and inviting them into it. He related the physical structure to the context by using brick, exposed steel, and glass as the materials, to reflect the industrial roots of Newark. Construction began in 1995.

During the bidding process, CEO Lawrence Goldman mandated that most of the construction jobs had to go to local minorities. The board of the company successfully implemented this program, suspending a contractor in 1995 for failing to do so.

Some, however questioned whether the $187-million-dollar project was really worth building, when there are so many social ills in the city, an aging infrastructure and a low median income. Another project with similar cost, concerns, and successes is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, California.^{[citation needed]}

It opened in 1997, to rave reviews by The New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp.

[edit] Future

The NJPAC has plans to expand across McCarter Highway to the Passaic River, opening up more of the waterfront and connecting it to Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium. Eventually The company will build two residential buildings for performers and condominiums, completing a boat-shaped plaza at the center.

Newark Light Rail service is open as of July 17, 2006, at the NJPAC/Center Street station, connecting the site with Broad Street Station and Penn Station Newark, connecting to rail lines from all over New Jersey.