Sheathed in blue steel, the structure was erected on the banks of the Mississippi, among large-scale old grain elevators and mills. Located in a former industrial zone, now gradually transforming into a high-end residential area, close to the high-rise buildings of the city center, the theater in its formal solution is coordinated both with the industrial past of the surrounding neighborhoods and with their glamorous future. The interposition of the main volumes reminds of industrial buildings, but the interior and exterior decor is deliberately luxurious.
The main difference between Nouvel's project and a traditional theater building is the placement of all three auditoriums at a height of at least 4 floors. The visitor enters the main hall with a detachable stage for 1,100 spectators and the hall with a traditional stage-box for 700 seats from the lobby of the fourth floor, and into the universal theater - the "black box" - from the lobby on the ninth floor.
Hence - the height of 12 floors, and the original spatial composition of the building.
The latter includes the "Endless Bridge" - a "console" with a length of 50 m protruding from the main volume of the theater at the height of the fifth floor, which ends with an observation terrace. From there, you can enjoy views of the river and the city.
The facade at the main entrance is decorated with huge black and white portraits of actors and playwrights, among the latter - Bernard Shaw, Eugene O'Neill, A. P. Chekhov. A semicircular volume of the hall with a portable stage hangs over the front entrance, and through its glazing, theater visitors can see the lower part of the spectator rows. Right at the entrance there is a narrow and deep atrium that pierces the building horizontally through - through its glass back wall you can see the river and the trees of the neighboring square.
Two very long and narrow escalators bring spectators to the lobby of the fourth floor, from where you can get to two of the three halls, as well as to the “Endless Bridge”. This decision is largely forced: in order to be economically sustainable, the theater (or the National Center for Dramatic Arts and Theater Education, as the institution is officially called) needs to attract the audience not only in the evening. Therefore, the complex includes a large restaurant on the ground floor, a gift shop, classrooms for children, etc. And in order to separate the mundane and mundane from the theater itself, they had to be separated in space.
The theater is connected by a windowless bridge with a nearby multi-storey garage, at the top of which is a theater workshop. The finished scenery will be delivered across the bridge to the stage, as if along a conveyor belt. Visitors will be able to observe this through the glass wall of the fourth floor foyer.
The walls of the ninth floor lobby are made of bright yellow glass, which creates a striking effect after the semi-dark interior of the elevator.
With his Theater, Guthrie Nouvel created his own performance, played out against the backdrop of unremarkable buildings in downtown Minneapolis. His undoubtedly successful project continues the line of the Herzog & de Meuron workshop, which opened in 2005 in the Walker Center for the Arts in this city, with its cultural scale and high architectural quality.
