Riverside Cultural Center
A new home for a community arts organization on the Mississippi bluff — a top-lit great hall, flexible studios, and a public terrace that returns the riverfront to the city.
The brief asked for a building that could host a 400-seat performance one night and a neighborhood market the next. We made the center a single great room under a folded-plate roof, ringed by served spaces that can open or close to it.
A clerestory of north light washes the hall without glare; the structure is left exposed — glulam ribs and a board-formed concrete base that registers the river’s flood datum.
Outside, a long terrace steps down the bluff to a restored shoreline, knitting the building into a regional trail network and giving the public a reason to arrive even when the hall is dark.
Collaborators
- Acoustics — Threshold Acoustics
- Civil — Bluff & Bank
