I want to thank Steve Haworth for stretching our minds about the Oberlin Project and for others who have expressed their opinions about the two proposed arts facilities on our Island. After reading Steve’s columns, getting information about Vashon Allied Arts’ proposed arts center and learning more about the plans for the high school, I recognize the need for two facilities. But I want to express my concerns about building two similarly sized facilities and the siting of the VAA building.
I believe the proposed VAA arts center is out of scale with both the location and the site. The VAA building, at a historic, small-scale intersection, will have a 450-foot frontage on Vashon Highway, walls 22 feet tall, a 48-foot peak to the roof and 100 parking places behind it. I believe a building and parking lot of this size are better located on the 100-acre high school campus, where they are compatible with the scale of buildings and associated hardscape.
Not only would this provide opportunities for education and internships to students during the classroom day, but it would allow us to build two complimentary theaters — sized for both the large audiences VAA anticipates (10 times per year, according to data VAA submitted to Water District 19) and a smaller, more intimate venue.
Having attended many Allied Arts performances and Drama Dock productions, it is clear that a small venue is desirable for many. This is the model Benoroya Hall has created — a space that can hold peak audiences and another smaller performance space sized for more intimate performances and for class use — the kind we have come to love at the Blue Heron.
We have an enormously complex set of issues before us: public and private funding, some of which is apparently site- and facility-specific; scheduling for the needs of multiple arts organizations and programs; sizing of facilities to provide for peak audiences and the more usual need for small venues; enormous capital costs and the concern for ongoing operating costs — to name a few.
My hope is that our Island organizations could construct two facilities on the high school campus, perhaps relocating the “bus barn,” just off Vashon highway or using the Building A site once that building is demolished. We could create two theater spaces — one sized for an audience of 300, the other for, perhaps, 125. If these were adjacent, they might share an entrance, a lobby and plumbing walls. Even if not connected, economies of scale would likely be realized if the buildings were in proximity to one another, making geothermal heating and rainwater collection and use more cost-effective. We might even be able to reduce operating costs, a major concern for both the school district and VAA.
The benefit to the community is that we create the most flexible spaces, where we don’t sacrifice our intimate venues for the desire to have space for larger audiences. With the Oberlin type of planning, we could honestly say that we will be constructing community facilities — ones that reflect a set of values with regard to scale, environmental impact and how we work together to meet our needs and affect our landscape and sense of place.
— Donna Klemka is a former Vashon School Board member and a long-time member of Vashon Allied Arts, an organization for which she also volunteers.