Ordway Center plans major upgrade

The Ordway Center, opened 23 years ago in downtown St. Paul, is planning its first major renovation, an expansion project that envisions, at long last, a dedicated home for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

It also has the potential to smooth relations between the Ordway and its arts tenants.

The plan, still in its preliminary stage, calls for ripping out the Ordway Center's 306-seat McKnight Theatre and replacing it with a 1,000-seat concert hall to serve as the SPCO's principal performance space.

The envisioned expansion is a tantalizing one, said Minnesota Opera president Kevin Smith, who also heads the Arts Partnership, the group formed last year that includes the Ordway, the Minnesota Opera, the SPCO and the Schubert Club.

"It's a viable, exciting concept, but we're still pretty early in the game," Smith said Tuesday. "The governance structure and date and price have not been finalized."

The Ordway opened in 1985 as the flagship arts venue of Minnesota's capital city. Last year, 359,000 patrons attended its mix of operas, recitals, concerts, dance, touring Broadway shows and the annual Flint Hills International Children's Festival.

The 1,000-seat venue would not be exclusive to the SPCO, which currently has world-renowned soprano Dawn Upshaw as an artistic partner and which will begin its 50th-anniversary season in September. The opera, for example, could use it for auditions or other events. But the larger hall would no longer host some of the smaller, more adventurous performing-arts productions, such as "The Rocky Horror Show," "Blues in the Night" and "Love, Janis," which won an Ivey Award last year.

Still, the expansion could help alleviate an overcrowded Ordway calendar. With one less player vying for time on the main stage, it could ease the scheduling of shows.

And while the 1,900-seat main hall is a multipurpose facility that has proved to be a good fit for opera and touring Broadway, lovers of orchestral music have complained about its acoustics.

A venue designed specifically for the SPCO presumably would offer acoustics suitable for non-amplified music. Preliminary architectural drawings have been commissioned for the new auditorium.

"We're not talking about something that will radically change the Ordway and its architectural relationship to Rice Park and the building," said Smith. "The issue has been, can it be done, within the very restricted confines of the real estate that's available? The answer is yes."

Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390