Transformation of Old Northfield Middle School to Carleton's Weitz Center on Schedule

Spring may be off to a slow start, but creativity is blooming on time for Carleton College.

Construction at Carleton’s new arts building is on schedule and on budget, according to college officials, which means in the fall Northfield’s former middle school will reopen as the Weitz Center for Creativity.

The center is named after the Weitz family, who donated $15 million toward the $40-million project. Carleton is using much of the original 1910 building and its 1934 and 1954 additions, but there has been some demolishing and plenty of re-purposing to go along with the new construction.

The center, which will primarily serve the school’s student body, will consist of a theatre, museum space and a cinema, along with labs and classroom space. On the whole, its mission is to be a “working laboratory for creativity.”

Located two blocks southeast of the main campus, right next to Central Park, the building's opening also officially brings a block farther into residential Northfield.

This unique location, along with the historic significance of the building, is not lost on school officials, who see the Center as an opportunity to work with local artists and expand the local arts community. 

Steve Richardson, Carleton’s Director of the Arts and one of the leaders of Weitz Center development, says the school has already had early conversations with Northfield community members about a couple possible projects.

“We’re working with a variety of community members to organize a collaboration of people interested in film,” says Steve Richardson, in reference to early talks of creating some type of local film society. “People keep coming up and asking how they can be involved, so it’s starting to form a nucleus.”

In addition, he said, the Weitz Center will have an outdoor performance area, and there's been discussions with the Northfield Arts Guild about possible Shakespeare in the Park shows. 
 
Joe Hargis, Carleton’s Associate Vice President for External Relations, added that while the school has always welcomed community members to school events, the location of the Weitz Center is particularly conducive to community involvement.

"There’s going to be a theatre in there,” Hargis says, “where the community could feasibly come in and watch interesting movies they couldn’t see anywhere else.”

Around the time of opening convocation next spring, the school hopes to kick off the building's opening with some festivities.

Soon after, Northfield residents should keep their eye's open for some new, local creativity.

WHAT'S CHANGING?

Here are some ways the new facility revives the old spaces:

• The 1934 auditorium is reconfigured as the new cinema.
• The middle-school library becomes meeting and gathering space that can accommodate lectures, small performances, and temporary exhibits.
• The 1954 gymnasium is transformed into a new performance theater complete with costume shop, set design facilities, rehearsal space and green room.
• Many classrooms will remain, renovated and updated with 21st-century technology.
• Wooden bleachers from the old gym will be reused as wall paneling.
• Wooden seats from the 1934 auditorium will become a ceiling-mounted sculpture in the new cinema entrance.

For a virtual tour of the building, click here.

Source: Carleton College