Wayne State University has posted sumptuous drawings of a $48.6 million project that will transform the busy corner of Cass and W. Forest in Midtown and breathe new life into the school's venerable Hilberry Theatre program.
The information sits on the website of WSU's College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts, drawing little media attention so far. WSU officials were not available for comment.
Known as the Hilberry Gateway Project, the complex will include:
*State-of-the-art costume and scenic studios.
*Flexible performance space for theater and dance in what is now the Hilberry Theatre.
*A new, 500-seat main theater.
*The Studio Theater.
The new theater project will sit just two blocks north of another major WSU development, announced in November: a nine-story mixed-use building that will include 248 market-rate apartments, 19,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, a hotel with up to 120 rooms and a conference center with capacity for up to 300 people.
The two developments will enhance an old but vibrant neighborhood in Detroit's burgeoning Midtown District and will be within walking district of new housing, shops and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, among other longtime attractions, such as the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The nearly century-old Hilberry is an old Christian Scientist church that WSU bought and converted into the centerpiece of its nationally known theater program.
South of the theater, on land that is destined to be used for the project, is a parking lot and the David Mackenzie House, the 119-year-old home of the founder of the school that became WSU. Done in Queen Anne style, the house was saved from demolition in the 1970s and today serves as headquarters of Preservation Detroit, the historic preservation organization.
The fate of the Mackenzie house is unknown.
The Hilberry’s 40-member company is composed of actors and backstage personnel, selected from nationwide auditions and interviews, who work under the direction of theater faculty and staff and receive training toward a master’s degree in fine arts.
The theater, now in its 50th season, is showing its age, WSU says on the Gateway Project website, with the basement prone to flooding and space at a premium.
WSU says it will launch the Gateway Project as a three-phase renovation and construction effort that combines new and existing structures. Once complete, the new complex will feature three performance venues — a main theatre, a multiform performance stage and the Studio Theatre. It will provide a home for the Hilberry Theatre company and the dance program in the Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance.
Phase one will be the construction of a new 500-seat main theatre on the corner of Cass and Forest, adjacent to the current venue. The space will feature a full-thrust stage with appropriate wing space.
