Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Bricks

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is a nationally-recognized center for performing arts that attracts over 400,000 visitors per year to attend award-winning plays and productions. When guests travel to Ashland to see the performances, the plaza and amphitheater known as “The Bricks” is their first theatrical experience where they can enjoy the free outdoor performances of OSF’s Green Show. In addition to being the core of OSF’s multi-venue campus, it also functions as a beloved, plaza for the local community. Walker Macy’s renovation treated the Bricks as an Oregon landmark commanding a place-based, dramatic design response inspired by the region’s rugged topography and Ashland’s lumber history. The revitalization enhanced the sense of place and quality of the plaza, while also resolving accessibility and operational issues to enhance user experience and daily theater operations. The redeveloped amphitheater and plaza have now become a heart for the OSF campus and a place where the Green Show has successfully grown and flourished.