Playhouse Square theater district in Cleveland to get $16M exterior upgrade

Playhouse Square theater district in Cleveland to get $16M exterior upgrade

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Cleveland’s PlayhouseSquare, with 10 stages and a million visitors a year, wants to extend its appeal to the street outside.

The nonprofit PlayhouseSquare Foundation plans to spend $16 million over the next year to upgrade the district with bright signs, gateway arches and digital displays.

“All we really need to do is pull the inside out,” said Danny Barnycz of Baltimore, the design consultant hired to devise the plan.

The Barnycz Group has worked on large-scale digital displays around the world for locations including Times Square, the Dubai Mall and Chicago’s Crown Fountain at Millennium Park.

Art Falco, president and CEO of PlayhouseSquare since 1991, said the proposals will transform the theater district.

A signature proposal will be installation of a 24-foot-tall glass crystal chandelier over the district’s hub street intersection, invoking the chandeliers inside the renovated theater lobbies.

Plans also call for four gateway signs in gold-colored aluminum to span entrances to the district and architectural lighting to highlight details of historic buildings.