Alley Theatre

The Alley Theatre building is one of the most important architectural landmarks in Houston. It received the national Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1972, confirming the Alley’s status as one of the most architecturally distinctive buildings constructed in the United States in the 1960s.

Designed by New York architect Ulrich Franzen, the Alley Theatre embodies the distinctive characteristics of theatres associated with the New Brutalism architectural movement. The New Brutalism (from the French b?ton brut –“raw concrete”) was the name given to the assertively profiled contemporary buildings characteristic of American modern architecture of the 1960s. In contrast to thin-skinned, steel-framed buildings of the 1950s with walls of glass or modular panel systems, Brutalist buildings were emphatically massive with extensive wall surfaces of reinforced concrete or brick unbroken by window openings.

The building’s bold and confident exterior appearance is mirrored in its sequence of remarkable interior spaces. Ulrich Franzen choreographed movement through the building’s public spaces, routing a driveway through the building to evoke spatially the theatre’s first “alley.” The interior features broad, shallow curving steps with thick laminated wood handrails and integral lighting that lead from the ticket lobby up to the lobby of the larger theatre. The stairs introduce a sense of spiraling spatial movement that animates movement through the building. The convex and concave protrusions of the balconies projecting out toward Texas Avenue reinforce the curvilinear spatial there.

The Hubbard Stage’s amphitheatre-style seating around the thrust stage is inspired by the great Greek theatre in Epidaurus. The Neuhaus Stage is reached by another spiral stair that leads down from the ticket lobby to a curved underground lobby. The theatre is a flexible black box space that can operate as 300 seats in the round or as a thrust configuration.

The Alley Theatre building has become a landmark at the center of Houston’s downtown Theater District.