The once bustling Bell Telephone building, which had become a shell of an industrial building left to ruin along the bank of Robinson’s Branch of the Rahway River in Rahway, N.J., now has a new life as the Hamilton Stage for the Performing Arts. The city-owned project was spearheaded by Rahway Arts District Inc., a non-profit arts and economic development organization for the city of Rahway, which boasts a population of 27,000. The venue is a key addition to the revitalized downtown and arts district, which now has five individual is now called, works in concert with the historic Union County Performing Arts Center to host professional and community performances. Events include live music, dance, musical theater and corporate conferences.
Along with the Bell Telephone building, the city purchased a tract of adjacent properties that line the river. The goal was to establish a performing arts campus, including a 1,000-seat outdoor amphitheater and a 199-seat studio theater, as well as stabilize and create a greenway along the riverbank. Because of the history of contamination on the site from a former commercial drycleaner, the city charged the Hamilton’s design team with producing a project with environmental goals. It was decided early in the process that the existing structure would be incorporated into the new facility, thus promoting sustainability and cost-effective reuse.
Challenges
The 13,000-square-foot Bell Telephone building had been a service facility for telephone response trucks since the 1930s. Equipment, supplies and personnel would be loaded for the day’s work orders, maintaining the telephone infrastructure. The building’s main structural elements were steel columns and trusses. The skin was comprised of a single wythe of concrete masonry units for walls, and a roof was constructed of wood purlins and asphalt shingles on a single layer of plywood. The roof, purlins and concrete block suffered from more than 20 years of neglect and did little to keep weather out of the building. The existing concrete slab that once handled the traffic of telephone trucks remained in surprisingly good condition despite the shallow pond of water that had become a fixture in the space.
The program requirements for a theatrical space yielded some challenges. The volume of the existing building created constraints for a raised platform stage and raked audience seating. The challenge was overcome by cutting and removing portions of the concrete slab and earth so the seating could be recessed 4 feet into the existing building’s footprint. The stage, dressing rooms and all other spaces remain at the existing slab elevation. A greater volume was created over the stage by modifying two existing steel trusses, so a portion of the bottom chord and web could be removed. The modified truss, painted in bright silver, became the proscenium for the stage.
State-of-the-art theatrical lighting and audiovisual systems were added. The classroom and rehearsal space were fully integrated with the building’s core of technology, allowing each public space in the building to act as a performance space.
New and Old
Despite the high level of disrepair, the majority of the existing construction was incorporated into the revived building. A new 4,800-square-foot addition was constructed, replacing a demolished office wing. A stark, rigid wall of back-lit translucent panels shields the private back-of-house spaces of dressing rooms, the green room, offices and the rooftop mechanicals. A second plane of glass curtainwall and translucent panels wraps around a rehearsal space and cuts through the building, guiding patrons into the lobby. An expanse of glass at the radius allows the building to have a dialogue with the community. At the intersection of the planes, the marquee, with its large cantilever and exposed cable stay construction, creates a wedge that splits the street wall to reveal the lobby. The back-lit façade glows warmly in the evening with the subtle ambiance of events inside.
The existing exterior wall and roof construction offered little in the way of protection from the elements. The walls were patched and pointed prior to receiving an exterior insulation and stucco system with 3 inches of insulation wrapping the entire existing building. An air barrier and moisture-management system was introduced to allow the system to weep and ventilate properly. Prior to construction, the existing wood purlins had to be treated for mold. Twenty percent of the purlins were replaced prior to the installation of a ventilated sheathing system. The vented sheathing allows for air circulation under the standing-seam roof and created an air gap to help control rain noise in the theater.