Topia Art Center

The Topia Arts Center is a multidisciplinary performance space between Park Street and the Ashiwilticock Rail trail in Adams, MA. This is an adaptive re-use of a 1937 Art Deco movie theater, and is also a LEED registered project. Prior to the construction of the movie theater there had been an opera house on this site. The Topia complex includes the Arts Center, the Topia Inn, and the Stone Soup Café.

Working from a theater concept developed by Robert Long of Theater Consultants Collaborative, the design incorporates flexible and fixed seating for a maximum capacity of 500 persons. There will be an addition with toilet rooms, dance studios, and dressing rooms and a green room. One of the dance studios will incorporate “motion capture technology.”

In November of 2008 Dana Bixby Architecture completed the schematic design phase and cost estimate for the project. The Arts Center is raising money for the full renovation. An initial phase of work is beginning in May 2009. The restoration of the Café space is complete, with a facade design that was completed by Dana Bixby Architecture in 2009.

A 3d video animation of the design is available at: