Varsity Theater Project Update
When the Varsity Theater opened in 1915 as a vaudeville showplace near the campus of the University of Minnesota, no one could have known that 90 years later it would still house live performances and that in fact - it is the premier boutique venue for musical performance in the country – gaining rave reviews from performing artists and concert attendees alike.
The road to success was not without pitfalls and it’s only by shear determination and a relentless vision from Owner Jason McLean and Walsh Bishop Design Lead Ed Wilms that the Theater continues to delight audiences.
The rise of movies and vaudeville’s decline saw the theater’s conversion to a movie house in 1939 after an extensive redesign by the Minneapolis architecture and design firm Liebenberg & Kaplan.
Operating as a movie theater well into the 1980’s, the landmark Art Moderne marquee went dark after a failed attempt to convert it into a nightclub. An unfortunate renovation in the early Nineties gutted the auditorium to make way for a photographer’s studio, and ultimately left it sitting empty for several years.
McLean and Wilms knew they had found something special when they first viewed the empty shell – and McLean’s vision for the “Varsity Theater and Cafe des Artistes” was born. The goal was to create a flexible space that could house an art exhibit one day, a rock performance the next – and a wedding on Saturday. That vision is now a reality and an economic engine for the community. Renovation plans are again underway to take the theater’s capacity from 300 to 900 with expanded bar and catering facilities which will be completed Summer 2008.
Several years before their collaboration at the Varsity Theater, McLean and Wilms had incredible success renovating the old Grey’s Campus Drug Store into the now vibrant Loring Pasta Bar, transforming a dilapidated building into a destination restaurant and revitalizing a neighborhood.
