Orange Gets Creative

By ANTOINETTE MARTIN

FIVE years in the making, the plan to create an arts district in a section of Orange where empty factory buildings now predominate has been refined and readied to go, with construction set to start in early January.

A total of 66 live-work lofts for artists, 8 arts-related retail stores, 17 artist studios and spaces for 9 arts programs are planned for what will be known as the Valley Arts District. Some new construction is planned, but the first large project will involve reconstruction of the seven-story Berg Hat Factory building, which has been empty for decades.

The rehabilitated Berg will house 29 loft condominiums, the 17 artist studios and 3 program spaces for printmaking, dance or recording studios, gallery space or the like.

The core of the Valley Arts District is a five-block stretch of Jefferson Street that cuts across the border into West Orange. Most of the district, however, is set within a city of Orange redevelopment district, and all plans have been developed in concert with Orange city officials, said Patrick Morrissy, the director of Hands, the nonprofit community development company that spearheaded the project and will be one of its three builders.

Hands secured state and federal grant money to help plan and develop the project — joining with the city in a promise to keep the spaces “permanently affordable.”

The system for doing so has not yet been established by the city of Orange. Within Jersey City’s Powerhouse Arts District, however, 10 percent of the units in any new project must be designated as affordable and offered at below-market rates. Artists are certified as professionals by a local arts authority, and units are offered first to certified working artists.

Mr. Morrissy cited the history of the creation of the arts district in Jersey City, recalling the eviction a few years ago of about 150 artists from a warehouse building at 111 First Street. That led to a legal battle and severe rancor that has not yet died down. “There are too many examples of artists helping to lift up communities only to be kicked out later because of market forces,” Mr. Morrissy said. “We view the artists as our partners and will protect them from being displaced.”

Last year, Hands established ValleyArts, a community organization of artists, parents, educators, neighborhood leaders and local officials, and hired a full-time director, Nathea Lee, who has recruited several new arts programs to the area.

Last weekend, people gathered at a community barbecue to admire a new art installation called the “Wall of Scintillation” — broken pieces of mirror applied mosaic-style to a wall — at one small complex of buildings that Hands has already begun rehabilitating within the Valley Arts District.

The rehabbed buildings — two old three-story structures, and another that was demolished and is being rebuilt — are known as the Brass Company complex, for the industry that once operated from there.

Now the space is occupied by ValleyArts and an arts therapy organization, several artists’ apartments and two arts retail shops: one features African art, the other plaster casts of architectural elements from historic buildings.

The Arts District is near two local train stations. In Orange, according to Mr. Morrissy, it covers an area with Central Avenue on the north stretching south to Nassau Street and from the railroad tracks along Scotland Road west to Valley Road. In West Orange, it includes parts of Valley Road, Tompkins Street and Stockman Street.

Its shape may grow and change as the district develops, he said.

Another Artistic Orange

In the village of South Orange, a performing arts center is about to open with an unusual amalgam of entertainment spaces.

The South Orange Performing Arts Center, called Sopac, holds a performing-arts theater with 415 seats; a five-screen movie theater, operated by Clearview Cinemas; and a loft space facing South Mountain Reservation, which is available for rent.

“Actually, I don’t know of any other building configured like this,” said the project’s designer, Carmi Bee of RKT&B Architects of Manhattan.

The combination of different kinds of spaces made the project financially viable, he noted. It took 12 years of planning and work to get Sopac built, with various local organizations involved in helping it along. For example, the theater programs at the performing arts theater will be sponsored by Seton Hall University, which is also in South Orange.

Sopac is set to open on Nov. 1. An inaugural gala concert featuring the cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera will take place on Nov. 16; Mr. Bee said it would be the first live test of the building’s acoustics.

Designing the structure was highly complex, he said, not just because of the mix of uses, but also because of the tight space available for the building, which stands adjacent to the trestle of the South Orange train station.

“In order for it to stand up against that,” he said, “we had to give it a very grand entrance,” while also keeping in mind the modest scale of the rest of the South Orange shopping area, and working in the Tudor-style and brick elements that typify it.

The building opens to a grand lobby with a staircase down the middle, separating traffic to the movie theaters and the performing-arts theater.

“It’s a very exciting new type of building,” said Mr. Bee, who specializes in arts-related building design. “I hope other places pick up the idea.”