Placed virtually on the Mississippi, the lightly corrugated midnight blue steel skin of the Guthrie’s new home speaks both toughness, utility, and welcome. The building is designed to be a destination in itself, and is fully treated as one by the welcoming staff in every area. Eager to share and show off their new home, they point out its features and send you on to other floors and rooms. Space, color, and light level vary throughout the building, from the tall, airy first-floor space (complete with 6’ reproductions of rave architectural reviews from Time and the New York, Chicago and Minneapolis papers), to the low-ceilinged stainless steel Target Lounge on the 4th level, the deep blue, darker lounge at the other end, and the bright amber box hung off the 9th floor of the Studio Theatre and overlooking the Mississippi. People were everywhere in the building during the four afternoon hours that I hung out there, having coffee, touring, and shopping at the modest but intriguing gift shop on the first floor.
Jean Nouvel was the architect, and this is his first major building in North America. As others have noted, Nouvel’s building is chockablock with clever and rewarding optical tricks. The fifth floor approach to the ‘endless bridge’ stretching out towards the Mississippi—a massive, hundred-yard long cantilever across the street and halfway down the riverbank—has a circular bar set directly in the middle, its thin wall dividing the view. I was sure one side of that division was a mirror, but both sides looked down the long corridor and out to the river. As in other places throughout the theatre—most notably the large exterior concrete faces at street level—faint images from productions at the Guthrie’s original incarnation across town line the walls. Their ghostly appearance makes it difficult to tell if they’re projected or painted into the concrete (after three examinations, I settled on the later). The tricks begin with the long escalator that ascends to the fourth floor entrances to the Wuertele Thrust Stage, a faithful reinterpretation of the Guthrie’s original design. These narrow, nearly claustrophobic corridors are lit by a succession of bulbs at foot level, whose spacing is set just different enough from the step with that it produces a strobe-like effect as the stainless steel stairs move past. It’s suggestive of the neon sequences on a Holiday Inn sign, beckoning you into the building and into the fun (and, of course, reversed when the escalators head down). The welcome is complemented by the recording that plays (you’re going up three stories, so there’s certainly time for an introduction).
On level 5 is, obviously, the Level 5 Café, serving a one-sheet menu of sandwiches and entrées before matinees, and a prix-fixe menu in the evenings. There’s also a coffee and sandwich bar serving reasonably priced (and tasty!) sandwiches, desserts, and coffees. This area sits outside the uppermost entrances to the Thrust Stage, and the lounge area here is one of the prime destinations, day or night. I counted at least five other bar areas (some open only for quick refreshments during intermissions), and the ground floor Cue restaurant rounds out the food and drink options—or at least I think so.
It’s not perfect, though. Although designed to be a destination in and of itself, with theatre the principal but not sole reason for attending, the omission of any significant retail choices (apart from the gift shop) seems odd. The first floor lobby seems bereft of a purpose; currently it houses the large reproductions of the architectural reviews, and somewhat strangely, a car built for a production. This is the one piece of the building that seems confused about its role. The rest of the building begins on Level 4, reached from the lobby via long escalators on either side. The building’s principal destinations are all up and the routes to them are not obvious. Once there, however, the building rewards discovery. It’s worth the time to tour nearly every part of it, and taking the regularly scheduled 10 am tour ($8) will give you insights you might otherwise miss, plus take you backstage, into the theatres, and the production areas which are otherwise the only places you can’t see by yourself.