The Sheldon plans $11 million renovation for its St. Louis home

The historic building housing much of the Sheldon Concert Hall and Art Galleries in Grand Center opened in 1912 as the home of the Ethical Society of St. Louis.

The performance space is lauded for its perfect acoustics and adorned with beautiful stained glass.

Even the adjacent building into which the Sheldon expanded in the early aughts, adding art galleries and a lounge area, dates back to the 1920’s, when it was a parking garage.

Yet Executive Director Peter Palermo says he frequently has to answer a question the Sheldon should have long-outgrown: Where is it?

“Everybody knows where the Fox Theater is,” Palermo said, “and the fact that we are on the same block as the Fox tells me that we are not doing a good job just in terms of lighting and outdoor signage.”

An $11 million capital campaign announced Wednesday will fund a bright, new marquee facing Washington Avenue that should help first-time visitors looking for the Fox’s smaller cousin around the corner.

Renovations will also include a central staircase meant to open up a cramped entranceway, a new bar, new bathrooms, refurbished art galleries, and a lounge for donors to the Sheldon. There will also be more lighting for the outdoor plaza where the organization began holding occasional performances during the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s a plan to carefully rearrange a limited amount of space to make for better flow throughout the Sheldon.

While the Sheldon’s leaders confidently describe the concert space itself as world-class, the facility around it lacks some common conveniences. The most direct entrance to the concert hall requires guests to climb more than a dozen stairs. From the accessible entrance, on the ground floor of the annex next door, visitors can take a right toward the bathrooms and bar or a left toward the pedestrian bridge leading to the main building.

The layout can lead to confusion and pedestrian logjams, said Joel Fuoss, principal at Trivers, the project’s lead architect and interior designer.

“You’re really greeted at a brick wall and you have to take a hard left. And you really don’t know where you’re going. You have no orientation to where the concert hall is or where the public really should arrive to,” Fuoss said.

The Sheldon Concert Hall and Art Galleries

The renovations will spruce up the Sheldon’s galleries, including opening up a cluster of six small exhibition spaces on one level into a large space. With more appealing galleries and better wayfinding throughout the space, leaders hope to funnel even more foot traffic from concertgoers to the galleries.

“We want to be an arts center, and so we look for ways to connect the music part of what we do and the art part of what we do, whenever we can,” Palermo said.

The Sheldon hosts internationally touring musicians, chamber performances by St. Louis Symphony Orchestra members, and arts-education programs experienced annually by 30,000 students. The organization has displayed more than 300 art exhibits since adding galleries in 1998.

“We really want everybody to know and understand that St. Louis has a gem in the Sheldon,” Palermo said. “We want it to be thought of like the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, or even Carnegie Hall in New York. These are venues that are gems, that have a personality, that are legendary. And we think the Sheldon belongs in that conversation.”