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Arts United Center

By Jack Cantey

Fort Wayne Reader

2006-09-18

In 1959, world-renowned architect Louis I. Kahn was commissioned to create a downtown cultural complex for Fort Wayne. An ambitious project for a small city, the imagined complex included buildings for the symphony orchestra and civic theatre, a music school, a ballet theater, an art school and dormitories, and a historical society museum. Several years later, Kahn unveiled his design to local patrons; its $20 million estimated cost of construction was eight times greater than was expected. When asked what Fort Wayne could get for $2.5 million, Kahn replied: “Nothing.”

Luckily, Kahn was able to provide the city with something – a 660-seat performing arts center (recently renamed the Arts United Center) located at 303 E. Main St.

The structure was designed as a building-within-a-building. In his notes, Kahn referred to the performance space with its folded concrete walls as “the violin” and the surrounding brick enclosure as “the violin case.” He wrote that “one must regard the auditorium and stage as a violin, a sensitive instrument where one should be able to hear, even a whisper, without any amplification. The lobbies and all other adjunct spaces may be compared to the violin case.”

Construction on the arts center finally began in 1970. The building was dedicated in the fall of 1973 – only five months before Kahn’s death.

(For Jack Cantey's complete photo essay, check out the latest issue of the Fort Wayne Reader, on news stands now)