Report To The Community 2022

future vision
NJPAC’s expanded arts district will include highand
low-rise towers (creating 350 residential
units, 20% of which will be affordable housing),
for-sale townhomes, more green space, plus
shops, restaurants and cultural destinations.
With residences, shops,
restaurants and more, the
new NJPAC campus will be an
artfully designed neighborhood
that’s authentic to the city
Three years from now, a walk
across the Arts Center’s campus
will feel entirely different.
Today, parking lots surround
NJPAC’s theaters, while the
wide-open Chambers Plaza
welcomes visitors out front.
By 2026, a stroll around the
Arts Center will be a walk
through a densely populated
neighborhood, through
buildings of all sizes, where a
visitor on any given day will
find residents popping in and
out of apartment buildings
and maisonette townhouses,
ducking into shops and side
streets or relaxing in green
spaces that dot the landscape.
“It was important to create a
district that celebrates NJPAC
and strengthens Newark —
to unite this critical cultural
institution and the neighboring
residential areas in a
harmonious way,” says Yasemin
Kologlu, Principal at Skidmore,
Owings & Merrill, the celebrated
architecture firm that has
designed the new neighborhood
that will be built on what is now
the Arts Center’s Parking Lot A.
As the design team worked,
Kologlu said, they were inspired
by a quote by the celebrated
architectural critic, Herbert
Muschamp, who wrote of NJPAC
when it opened: “Newark’s
new Center is much more
than a work of architecture.
It is an uproar. A commotion.
A melee of civic hope.”
After years of planning
and preparatory work, a
groundbreaking for this new
district — a joint effort between the
Arts Center and developers Center
Street Owners (CSO), a group
that includes L+M Development
Partners and Prudential Impact
& Responsible Investments —
is scheduled to occur by the
fourth quarter of 2023.
The first phase of redevelopment
will include a high-rise tower and
two low-rise towers, creating 350
residential units (some 20% of
which will be affordable housing)
and plenty of space for shops,
restaurants and cultural spaces
on each building’s ground floor,
all built around a new extension
of Mulberry Street through the
NJPAC campus to Rector Street.
Among the attractions that
will draw visitors to the new
Mulberry Street: Newark’s
beloved jazz radio station,
WBGO, hopes to move into a
new purpose-built home on the
first and second floors of one
low-rise building, and famed
restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson
will establish new food and
beverage spaces at the site.
For-sale townhomes will line
quieter side streets between the
two residential buildings, and
greenery will dot the landscape.
“We wanted to create an active
and diverse neighborhood
by designing various types
of residences for different
lifestyles,” says Kologlu. “The
project also presented an
enormous opportunity to
bring back some of the city’s
streetscape by restoring those
lost urban connections.”
So the high rise tower will
face the Passaic River, to take
advantage of the water views.
Nearer to NJPAC, the scale of
the buildings will be lower, with
large windows and open space
on the ground floors, extending
the new streetscape. Balconies
and terraces throughout the
project will create outdoor
spaces for residents.
The townhomes will be on side
streets closed to through traffic,
creating space for children
and families to play, with front
gardens, stoops and internal
courtyards providing greenery
and gathering spots. Each street
through the development will
have its own character, Kologlu
says, with different material
delineating each space, from
NJPAC’s familiar red brick
on the low-rise buildings to
wooden elements elsewhere.
“We were inspired by the texture,
color and materiality of NJPAC
and the neighborhood,” says
Kologlu. “The facade design
of each building complements
NJPAC, without mimicking it.”
In addition to the development
on Lot A, the project also includes
the first major upgrade to
NJPAC’s central building in its 25
year history: A new light-filled
entryway will be built on the Arts
Center’s eastern facade, with
expansive windows overlooking
the new Mulberry Street, giving
passers-by a peek at activity
inside, while a wood and
metal canopy shields arriving
guests from the elements.
Greenery-covered trellises will
wrap around NJPAC’s new
loading docks, and visitors will
traverse a small new “pocket
park” along Mulberry as they
arrive at the Arts Center.
This new entryway will allow
multiple parties and special
events to be held at the Arts
Center at the same time as
mainstage performances, with
guests for each arriving at
different spaces and entering
through separate doors.
“We’re creating a new arts
and residential district that
is grounded and embedded
in Newark,” says Kologlu.
“We believe it’s going to be a
special place — a welcoming
and vibrant neighborhood
that knits the surrounding
communities together.” •
44 njpac.org
njpac.org 45