Maison de la francophonie, Vancouver, 1997
Studio 16eme renovation
(with Proscenium Architecture + Interiors)


Since 1989 La Maison, a multipurpose building, has served as a home for a variety of non-profit francophone community organizations who provide a variety of cultural, educational and social activities for the francophone community and the general public. Studio 16, a 100+ seat black box performance venue, was home to Theatre la Seizieme, a francophone theatre company which has a limited season in Vancouver and tours extensively throughout western Canada. Studio 16 was also used by a number of small Vancouver theatre companies as well as le Centre culturel francophone de Vancouver, a community resource for province-wide French language services including extensive book and video libraries as well as festivals, special events and leisure activities for all ages. La Maison also houses a number of commercial tenants, the best known of which is the Diane Farris Gallery, whose tenancy in the building predates the Societe's ownership.

The problem facing La Maison and its resident organizations was that Studio 16 was not doing a good job for La Maison, Theatre la Seizieme, le Centre culturel, other francophone organizations or the Vancouver theatre community. We were engaged to determine whether a market existed for Studio 16 as a theatre, a community hall or both, and to recommend both how it should be managed and what physical alterations should be undertaken to make it work.

Research for the project quickly revealed that Studio 16 was not working because theatre folks didn't think of it as a theatre (too many non-theatre events) and francophone organizations considered it a dreadful place for any event, especially meetings. Given that the physical problems (sound isolation and audience traffic patterns) could be fixed, a usage model was developed that, while it made programming sense, did not produce the required financial results. New business would need to be found. We added a catering operation to the model to make it possible to compete with hotels and community halls for the meeting business. La Maison raised the funds and created its new "Theatre Bistro".