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The darkness which enveloped the St. Louis entertainment district in the 1960s with the closing of its movie and vaudeville houses has been dispelled in recent years by an urban lighting revitalization.
The Grandel Square Theatre is the centerpiece of a lighting project which seeks to convey the theatrical spirit of this eight-block Grand Center Cultural district.
The limestone facade is formally and dramatically illuminated along its east base in crisp white light. It is presented to the passerby as a theatrical backdrop, a piece of urban scenery. High above the theatre's stone foundation, a bell tower lighted in ghostly blue contrasts against the textured fabric below. Fronting this side of Grandel Square Theatre is the James Turrell sculpture, Tilted Plane, which is subtly lighted along the grass diagonals with side emitting fiber optics.
Turning the corner onto a side street, the artful lighting of the architecture turns garrish. Chaser lights dance around the renovated Sun Theatre sign, illuminated by fluorescent neon. More than 500' of yellow and orange tubing bent in the shape of sunrays stretches across the facade of the empty show house. Above the neon sign, three large arched windows are highlighted to reveal the design of the theatre's cornice and frieze. The lighting intensity is just enough to unveil the peeling paint beyond the glass allowing the passerby a glimpse into the theatre's grand past and hints at its wonderful potential. Single light sources placed underneath fire escapes on each side of the Sun Theatre obliquely rake the building's red brick. The theme has been carried out on the fire escapes of Grand Center's Fox Theatre, a new-Byzantine show house renovated in 1982, and Powell Symphony Hall, which anchors the entertainment district.
In the shadows next to the Sun Theatre, the windows of the vacant Block House were backlighted in blue to tie the house into the district. The color and light movement from the Sun Theatre and Block House play off the reverent, but hushed, lighting given to the north side of Grandel Square Theatre, across the street.