Story

The Lawrence Arts Center is a private nonprofit organization operating in a facility owned by the City of Lawrence. Since its establishment in 1974, the Arts Center has become an important community asset. A combination of city funding and private donations provided the capital to create a new Arts Center facility. 

The program called for 40,000 square feet of building area, to be all new construction on a downtown Lawrence site. The original design contract called for expansion of the Arts Center's current building, a former Carnegie Library structure from 1904, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This alternative proved unpalatable from a historic preservation perspective, and various alternative sites were explored. 

The new downtown site is both prominent and restrictive in size and interacts with a varied urban context. The building's functional program includes a full range of arts-related spaces, including performance and community forum spaces, galleries, exhibit spaces, studios, teaching environments and even an arts-based preschool. This successful design for the Lawrence Arts Center combines sensitivity to the urban context while simultaneously expressing the excitement and creativity of a contemporary center for the arts and arts education.