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New OSF theater could reach into city parking lot Design is smaller than original plan By JOHN DARLING ASHLAND -- The Oregon Shakespeare Festival's new theater will use simple design, materials of glass, stone and wood and be large enough to extend 50 feet into an adjacent city parking lot, possibly necessitating a two-level parking structure, according to an architect's plans. The festival hopes to make up lost parking spaces by redesigning the 88-space lot on Hargadine Street, said Festival Director Paul Nicholson. If it can't, plans call for adding a second parking level, which would match the plane of Hargadine Street and provide a total of 121 spaces. The parking structure might be paid for by some combination of the festival, city or nearby merchants, as yet to be determined, city planners said. Thomas Hacker Architects, Portland, presented the preliminary plans at a recent pre-application hearing with city planners. The Hacker report calls for a 32,000-square-foot theater, but Nicholson said plans for the building, showing plentiful glass and natural stone, are being reshaped almost daily and the theater is now "dramatically different and significantly smaller." He declined to say how it is different or how much smaller it is from the architect's plans. Plans should be finalized by June and a ground-breaking is expected in late 2000, Nicholson said. The new theater will replace the Black Swan and will accommodate 250 to 330 patrons, depending on how seating and the stage are arranged. It will be intimate and experimental and "make a minimal architectural statement" with "visual novelty being reserved for the stages," said the Hacker proposal. The theater will use concrete block with wood, stone and glass as exterior materials and, in the lobby, exposed wood post and beam construction, the Hacker report said. Although the new theater is in Ashland's historic district, it's required only to meet downtown commercial aesthetic standards and "is not going to look like a historic building," said Nicholson. The festival still plans to move historic Carpenter Hall, a 1923 church now occupying the site, but a location has yet to be found. Historic preservation consultant George Kramer said he has asked Nicholson to hold a community forum next month on ways to keep Carpenter in place, including tearing down the Black Swan and adjacent scene shop building and using the spaces for the new theater. Nicholson said that is not possible because the spaces are not wide enough to accommodate the new theater. There will be public hearings on the parking lot alterations, as well as the theater, because a hearing is automatic with any structure over 10,000 square feet, said city planner Bill Molnar. A "fly tower" used to raise and lower scenes and props rises in preliminary plans to 40 feet above the ground, he said. "By and large, the information we got from the city at the preliminary hearing is that we're on the right track," said Nicholson. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA