Interior Architecture Students Re-Imagine Manhattan Landmark

Reprinted Courtesy of KSU Media Relations and Marketing

Interior architecture students at Kansas State University are helping the new owner of a downtown Manhattan landmark shape its transformation into an entertainment destination.

The Wareham Opera House, which began life as a movie theater in the 1920s, now hosts weddings, receptions and meetings. Darrell and Molly Hills, who bought the building at 410 Poyntz Avenue in December 2006, envision a renovation that will combine an intimate piano bar with a wide-open, high-ceilinged space that will retain their reception business but also accommodate live blues and jazz bands.

The trick is combining what seem like competing purposes into a harmonious whole.

“And this was the challenge to the students,” Darrell Hills said: “To incorporate in the existing space a piano bar that could be opened up to be a music center and events space.”

Enter Fayez Husseini, K-State professor of interior architecture and product design, and the 17 students in his fifth-year interior architecture design studio.

“Darrell gave us wish list, but it wasn’t limited,” Husseini said. “He wanted the students to use their creativity.”

All the proposals used complementary lighting, color and materials to tie the two spaces together, but they took different approaches to the vital task of dividing the under-balcony space from the cavernous reception area.

One proposal called for translucent, pivoting screens that would display clips from vintage films, a nod to the Wareham’s history and Hills’

affinity for the work of Jack Nicholson. Another incorporated panels that would store flat against the theater walls, adding color and absorbing sound when the space was opened up.

“They’ve done a tremendous job,” Darrell Hills said. “It’s like being a kid in the candy store with all these ideas.” He particularly liked the suggestion of building a piano right into the bar.

“It really brings the energy to the piano player, and that’s what’s magical about piano bars: the connection between the guests and the player,” he said.

Hills has been working with Tim Clark, a local architect, to turn the theater into a destination for those old enough to pull up a stool and order a martini.

“Some of the furniture and some of the new takes on the Vegas-style booths were really fine,” Clark said. “There was some very professional-looking work.”

It will fall to Clark to take the most practical ideas and turn them into construction drawings of what’s actually going to be built. Time, money, materials and contractors will influence the result, he said.

“Along the way we’ll run into surprises, but some of those will be good,”

Clark said.

Husseini and his students met with Hills and Clark three times to document existing conditions, generate ideas, and finally to present proposals.

Although the realities of construction mean no single proposal will be built as drawn, Hills said, “Every one of the designs had some outstanding element about it.”

The students who worked on the Wareham include:

Maggie Cocke, Augusta.

From Greater Kansas City: Fabiola Troncoso, Kansas City, Mo.; Renee Girard and Colleen Wittman, both of Olathe; Megan Vaeth, Overland Park; and Laura Hasty, Shawnee.

Ross McCoy, Hutchinson; Rebecca Bayouth, Lawrence; Grant Thome, Viola; and Kristin Stang, Wichita .

From out of state: Stacey Schmitt, Fairview Heights, Ill.; Lindsey Miller, Eden Prairie, Minn.; Trini Ainsworth, Jefferson City, Mo.; Stephanie Dixon, Parkville, Mo.; Kristofer Roberts, Carroll, Neb.; Heather Manning, Plattsmouth, Neb.; and Brittney Karber, Fairview, Okla.

For more information, contact:
Fayez Husseini, 785.532.2480
Diane Potts, 785.532.1090