Over 55,000 terracotta tiles pattern the exterior 585 Third St. with a gradient of blue to orange, mimicking the colors of a New England sunset. Their pleats are meant to resemble a rising theater curtain. This is the facade of The Platform, a new performing arts and community space six years in the making, that joins the skyline of Kendall Square.
The Platform will serve as the main performance space for Cambridge nonprofit Global Arts Live, which has been presenting arts groups from around the world in venues around Boston and Cambridge since 1990. Before now, it has never had a dedicated performance space.
Global Arts Live and The Platform will host a free, public opening day Saturday to celebrate the project’s completion.
The Platform’s 45,000 square feet houses performance venues, rehearsal spaces, dressing rooms and greens rooms alongside state-of-the-art technology that artists can now utilize in upcoming seasons.
On the second floor sits the 400-seat Takeda Theater, named after the venue’s lead sponsor. The theater is home to extensive equipment, so artists do not have to rent and install it separately for their performances, said Connie C. Chin, CEO of Global Arts Live and The Platform. Rehearsal space at The Platform is the same size as the Takeda Theater, allowing artists, some of whom will be in residency there, to rehearse in a space comparable to the where they will perform. Below the Takeda Theater is the cabaret-style Tempo Stage, with 125 seats in the heart of the lobby, which allows for simultaneous performances in both theaters.
The lobby was designed to be “a living room for everyone in the community,” Chin said. A bar, cafe and community seating allows for gathering from the morning to the night in the space, with large glass doors that allow for passersby to look right in.
“It’s limitless, the kind of social interaction we can create surrounding the arts in that space,” Chin said. The space is versatile, she said, with livestream technology in the theaters that allow it to be booked for conferences and other events and plans for a winter market that will spill over from the inside to outside.
The planning for The Platform started years ago but was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, said Maure Aronson, founder and artistic adviser of Global Arts Live. But the community need for a midsize theater and accessible performing arts space remained, he said.
“It’s a real game changer,” Aronson said of the theater, which helps address a need for more mid-sized performance space.
Jean Appolon, founder and artistic director of Haitian-Folkloric dance group Jean Appolon Expressions, has been in residence as an artist even before The Platform was opened, preparing for its performances of Pouvwa (Power) Nov. 13 and 14. The work is a collaboration with Cambridge poet and writer Jean Dany Joachim and composer Val Jeanty. Appolon, who started teaching Haitian folk dance at The Dance Complex in 1996, said a more intimate space like The Platform allows for artists to feel connected to the audience.
“It gives [the audience] the opportunity to really see you,” Appolon said, “and to really be able to understand what you are doing.”
Global Arts Live plans to present at The Platform for about one-third of the nights of programming, opening the remaining two-thirds to artists and cultural organizations in the area. While rental costs can sometimes be a barrier for artists to perform, Chin saidThe Platform will offer 25 nights free of charge that the community can request to use. On its website, Global Arts Live already lists 40 shows at the Takeda Theater from November until June 2027. The Tempo Stage has 19 events scheduled.
The site was acquired in 2018 by BioMed Realty, originally for the purpose of building a lab and office space, said Salvatore Zinno, vice president of development. But he said early on BioMed Realty realized there was an expectation of incorporating an arts space for 585 Third St, and that they were going to honor that.
“It’s exciting to deliver on all the commitments that we made,” Zinno said. “And I hope that it meets everyone’s expectations, and I hope everyone comes for a show.”
Takeda, a pharmaceutical company and Massachusetts’ largest life sciences employer, will move into the space above The Platform, though its portion of the site is still under construction. The lobbies to Takeda’s space and The Platform will be on different sides of the building, Chin said, to keep the community space separate from the office lobby. This weekend’s opening will be only for the first three floors that make up The Platform.
On the exterior wall of the building, the vertical dance company BANDALOOP will perform Thursday and Friday, viewable from anyone in the area. Audiences can also see them perform at 12:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. The opening day to the public will consist of regional artists performing throughout the building at various times.
This story is part of a partnership between Cambridge Day and the Boston University Department of Journalism’s Newsroom Initiative.
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