The renovation of Rainbow Stage celebrates the building’s architectural legacy while establishing a renewed and vibrant identity within the landscape of Kildonan Park. The design respects the distinctive character of the existing structure while introducing contemporary upgrades that enhance accessibility, patron experience, life-safety and building code compliance and security, ensuring the facility continues to support the performing arts for years to come.
Four Key Priorities Guided The Design Approach
- Celebrating the history of Rainbow Stage through thoughtful aesthetic, technical, and programmatic interventions that honour the original architecture while accommodating modern needs.
- Enhancing accessibility and life safety throughout public areas, including upgraded gender-neutral washrooms, new handrails and heightened guardrails, improved lighting and the introduction of detectable warning surfaces. The renovation also adds a new Universal Toilet Room and additional water closets to meet current code requirements and to support peak occupancy demands.
- Increasing capacity with a new exterior courtyard that serves as a gathering space before performances, during intermission, and after shows. This outdoor space extends the venue into the park,
enriching both patron and staff experiences and accommodating new concessions and a smaller performance stage.
- Reimagining the Front-of-House to create a clear and welcoming entry sequence, including the reorientation of the primary path to the building entrance. Exterior regrading and recent landscaping address ongoing flooding issues and strengthen the building’s relationship to the surrounding park. Existing murals were removed to reveal the original exposed concrete, reinforcing the building’s original Brutalist architectural style.
This includes the unveiling of a rainbow shaped relief cast into the lobby’s concrete wall—an architectural feature that had been hidden for decades. New colourful powder-coated aluminum pickets are added inside and outside to introduce vibrancy and continuity along circulation routes, creating a distinctive visual ribbon that also improves security.
Client: Rainbow Stage (1993) Inc.
Type: Civic
Construction Value: Undisclosed
Date of Completion: Under Construction
Area: 2455 sq.m of open air seating / concourse area. 740 sq.m. of outdoor courtyard