Peeking inside: Anatomy of the complex

The decades before The Ferguson were not exactly an entertainment desert, mind you, but we Peninsula folks were compelled to use available resources -- voluminous spaces such as high school auditoriums or that erstwhile palace of ‘cultchah’, the Hampton Coliseum -- in order to bring a higher caliber of fun to our lives. Dolly Crane brought her Broadway vision to the old Newport News High School, Cary McMurran his symphonic dreams to Warwick High School (as well as the Coliseum every December). Both the Virginia Symphony and Virginia Opera brought truckloads of art and artists to makeshift Peninsula locations. And several business partnerships, including mine, brought theatre to the masses in novel places like churches and hotel banquet rooms. There was no end to the “Can you top this?” venue-envy among competitors for Peninsula entertainment dollars in bygone days.

But we all secretly longed for our very own version of Willett or Chrysler Hall, a place where love of professional performance intersected the economic break-even point. Adding a few contemporary heroes with this shared vision has finally made the difference. The Hon. Paul Trible, former U.S. Representative, U. S. Senator, and, now, distinguished president of Christopher Newport University is, by dint of his position, chiefly responsible for bringing the dream to midtown Newport News. The planning began in earnest in 1996 with the engagement of a collection of firms known worldwide for doing spectacular things.

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners -- founded by I. M. Pei, whose designs include the National Museum’s East Building (Wing) in DC, the glass pyramid at the Louvre and the Hancock Tower in Boston, among many other world landmarks --were principal architects for The Ferguson. Their mission was to graft the colonnaded performing arts center onto the old backside of Homer Ferguson High School. The element of genius in that design is the 25-arch exterior pedestrian colonnade and its subordinate motivic development throughout the complex. Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas and Co. completed the architectural team., and Theatre Projects Consultants provided guidance for the theatres.