Visit Louis Kahn’s Arts United building, his only work in the Midwest and his only performing arts center in the world.
Sometimes masterpieces are found in the most unassuming of places. Hidden in plain sight in Fort Wayne, Indiana, there’s an extremely rare Louis Kahn building known as Arts United. The building is the city’s only performing arts center. But its true claim to fame is that it’s the only Louis Kahn building located in the Midwest and the only performing arts center the architect ever produced in the world. That’s why the city is now doing all it can to not only preserve it for future generations but also update the building to be more easily accessible to all audiences.
A Grand Vision
Wanting their own version of New York’s Lincoln Center, the Fine Arts Foundation of Fort Wayne, Indiana, commissioned Louis Kahn, one of the most preeminent US architects of the latter half of 20th century, to design and build it. “Fort Wayne has these moments of outsized thinking and planning,” says Miriam Morgan, VP of operations and unofficial archivist at Arts United. “We tend to have bold visionaries every generation or so.”
The project was going to be big. The foundation’s hope was that their Lincoln Center in miniature would encompass enough buildings to house a theatre, performing arts school, art museum, outdoor gardens and much more. But after Kahn brought back his plans for the Center, proposing a budget of $20 million, the city (which only had a population of 180,000 residents at the time) asked him to scale down. “So, they pivoted and pared down to a single performing arts building, the most pressing need at the time,” Miriam says. Commissioned in 1961, Arts United was finally completed in 1973.
The Beautiful Brutalism of Louis Kahn’s Arts United
But the building’s aesthetics didn’t capture the hearts and minds of everyone. “A local paper described the building as ‘having all the warmth and comfort you would expect in a powerhouse’—people either loved it or hated it. But I find that to be true of all great art,” Miriam says. “It’s a bit brutalist and people were used to Mid Century Modern designs wanting to feel light with all their glass, so people found it hard at first to understand the building.”
Kahn had always been an esoteric architect. “He was known to talk to his material. He’d ask a brick, ‘What do you want to be?’ And to him, it would say, ‘I want to be an arch,’ so, he made it into an arch,” Miriam says. At a time when everyone else was working in steel and glass, Kahn preferred to focus on the masonry details of his buildings. “He wanted his buildings to feel archaic, so he created this idea of ‘ruins in reverse,’” she says. Hence, the building’s grand staircases incorporate a procession of columns, a reference to the Parthenon. “He thought concrete was perfect for building, like a molten stone.”
He wanted his designs to get to the essence of what a structure should be: basic and honest in its production. Inside Arts United there are obvious concrete pour holes on the massive walls but no ornate plaster decorations, no trim work. The result is distinctively Kahn—beautifully brutal. And it’s why people come from all over the world, even during the off-season. “Tourists will come from Japan, Turkey, Denmark—and we will find them wandering the grounds,” Miriam says. “People will arrival in the middle of the week and beg to be let in to get a glimpse. This happens year-round. It’s kind of wild.”
A Mid Mod Modernization
For all these reasons and more, the city hopes to usher the building into the present. Starting June 2024, the
theatre will be updated with $40 million worth of renovations. “Working theaters want the latest tech for their productions—and this is Apollo-era tech we’re talking about—so the building needs to catch up,” Miriam says.
What’s more, the building was made before the Americans With Disabilities Act, meaning not everyone can access the building right now. “There’s no vertical accessibility, so we are putting in elevators for patrons on the main levels, and in the basement, elevators to bring up different gear and props for the performances,” Miriam says. The updates will also increase the number of handrails and accessible seating. Plus, there will be a new, accessible drop-off zone to one side of the building, allowing patrons to move directly into the differently abled seating.
The building’s overall tech and lighting will also get a modern upgrade. Plans include a new acoustical shell for the orchestra, automated stage rigging, specialty audio equipment for accessibility, a modernized HVAC system, security systems and more.
With all these changes, the building will be able to support the community for another 70 years and beyond.
Things to Do in Fort Wayne, Indiana
Check out these spots around the city, perfect for fans of unique architecture and design.
Concordia Theological Seminary. Designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, this seminary comprises a series of pitch-roofed buildings positioned around a lake. At the center is the Kramer Chapel covered in diamond-shaped bricks that almost seem to glow from the natural light bouncing off the lake.
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge. The bridge was rededicated in 2012 to Martin Luther King Jr. Besides driving on it, you can access the bridge by foot and bike due to the redesigned pedestrian and bike paths. The bridge’s support struts light up a different color (sometimes rainbow colors) every night.
Allen County Courthouse. A historic landmark, this courthouse is a superb example of Beaux Arts design, with its scagliola interior floors and murals in the courtrooms.
For more Mid Century Modern in Indiana, don’t miss A Wooded MCM Indianapolis Home is An Unearthed Gem, A Modern Family Finds a 1975 Sherbondy Home in Indiana, This Atomic Era AirBnb Recreates a Cult-Classic Film and Tour the Frost House, a Rare Modern Gem in the Midwest. And of course, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube for more Atomic Ranch articles, house tours, and ideas!
