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Madera arts board weighs reuse of Lincoln School and smaller, multiuse theater to cut $60M price tag
Summary
Board members, architects and city staff discussed repurposing the old Lincoln School and shifting from a 480‑seat, sloped‑floor theater to a smaller, flat‑floor multiuse design to lower costs, with staff asked to convene agencies to study funding and ownership options.
The Madera County Arts Authority discussed options this month to scale down a previously planned $60 million downtown arts center by reusing parts of the old Lincoln School and adopting a more flexible theater design, the board heard.
The board’s chair said the original 500‑seat civic center design—estimated several years ago at roughly $60 million—“seems a little high for us,” and that the group is examining lower‑cost approaches, co‑use partnerships and philanthropy. “We have about $5,000,000 in the bank already,” the chair said, noting an initial $3,000,000 gift helped start the effort.
Sean Yemenjian, senior associate architect with Paul Hodgkin Architects, urged the board to consider a flat‑floor, telescoping‑seat model used at Fresno Pacific’s Warkentin Center. “It’s a Swiss‑army knife of theatres,”…
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