Aurora Arts Center is an adaptive reuse arts centre project that brings historic preservation, affordable artist housing, cultural education and downtown regeneration into one complex programme.
The project is useful because it shows how difficult old buildings can become active civic infrastructure again when programme, partnerships and heritage work line up.
Project overview
The John C. Dunham Aurora Arts Center repositions two landmark buildings on Stolp Island in downtown Aurora. The project combines arts uses, mixed-use development and partnerships to support adaptive reuse and preservation goals.
The centre includes 38 affordable artist-preference apartments, the Paramount School of the Arts, Paramount Theatre rehearsal spaces and the Stolp Island Social House restaurant within 80,000 square feet of historic buildings.
Why the reuse was complex
- The project works across the historic Block and Kuhl and Stanley buildings.
- The buildings had been joined internally in the late 1980s for a community college campus.
- After that use moved, the floorplates became a redevelopment puzzle.
- The buildings sat idle for more than six years and affected perceptions of downtown Aurora.
- The new programme had to make housing, education, rehearsal and hospitality work together.
What makes the project useful
Adaptive reuse is rarely just a design exercise. It involves building fabric, financing, tenants, heritage advice, public perception and the practical difficulty of making old floorplates work for new uses.
Aurora Arts Center is a good case study because the arts are not treated as a decorative add-on. They are the anchor for housing, education, rehearsal, food, public activity and wider downtown renewal.
Showcase an adaptive reuse project
Architecture Social can feature built work where historic buildings, cultural use, housing, public life or regeneration come together.
- Explain what made the existing building difficult.
- Show how the new uses fit the old fabric.
- Name the public or community benefit.
- Include project team, scale, completion and heritage context.
Project details
- Project size: 90,000.
- Site size: 100,000 ft2.
- Project budget: 22,000,000 dollars.
- Completion: 2020.
- Building levels: four.
- Project team: Cordogan Clark, DXU, MacRostie Historic Advisors, VARA Interior Design, McShane Construction, Ode Creative Consulting and Mark Ballogg.
Architecture Social view
Stephen’s recruiter view is that adaptive reuse projects should be easy to explain in three parts: what was there, what was hard about it and what the new use now gives back.
Next step
Explore more built projects, read the portfolio guide, or submit an adaptive reuse project.
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