The National Park Service has listed the Arts United Center on the National Register of Historic Places with National Significance.
The designation comes as the performing arts center is in the middle of a $40 million expansion and modernization project. The project will revamp rehearsal spaces, as well as upgrade technical and event production capabilities, and also make it more accessible to people of all abilities.
It will also maintain the venue’s historic value and original design, according to a release.
The building opened in 1973; it was designed for the city by renowned architect Louis Kahn, who also designed the Yale University Art Gallery and the National Assembly of Bangladesh.
According to the release, Kahn’s work for the City of Fort Wayne is his only commission of any type in the Midwest.
In its recognition of the building for the National Register, the National Park Service specifically noted its “embodiment of (Kahn’s) more mature design philosophy and ideas.”
