New England Youth Theatre

New England Youth Theater (NEYT) Amphitheatre and Outdoor Classroom in Brattleboro, Vermont has hired Stevens & Associates (S&A) regularly for the last decade to help them transform their 100 Flat Street campus into an appealing and functional property. The most recent addition to this campus is the children’s amphitheater now dedicated as the Glendon Mayo Theater. The NEYT campus is a brownfields site from the prior industrial uses at the property, typical to redevelopment of urban sites. Since acquiring the property, NEYT has been investing in this campus with substantial construction projects which each involves environmental remediation so that the grounds may be safely used by the public.

S&A teamed up with L.E. Environmental (LEE) to remediate the site, including demolition of the contaminated and unused Livery Building, and to replace with an outdoor amphitheater for additional theater space to rehearse and perform. The project was funded by private donations, NEYT funds, and heavily supported by EPA grant money via the Windham Regional Commission for brownfields redevelopment. LEE provided environmental consulting and testing services to design and implement the brownfields remediation. S&A provided the landscape architectural design, engineering, bidding, and construction phase oversight of the project. The result is a successful and beautiful greenspace addition that exceeded NEYT expectations, is readily adaptable for future improvements, and met the project budget.

Project highlights include:

  • Iterative design fully explored case studies and concept layouts that considered the multiple elements of theater design
  • Imaginative and irregular use of granite, brick, and landscaping to meet the artistic character of the organization and the surrounding area
  • Heavy focus on constructability and smart bid phase management resulted in multiple competitive bids that were all on-budget to select from
  • High-profile project in our community that finds new beautiful and safe uses for abandoned urban sites