More than five years after BioMed Realty and Global Arts Live rolled out 585 Arts, a joint nonprofit with the vision of bringing a performance space to Kendall Square, the vision is about to be realized for audiences with a members-only opening night Nov. 6 featuring the dance companies Bandaloop and Compagnie Hervé Koubi.
The new venue is called The Platform and offers two stages – the 125-seat Tempo in the lobby and 400-seat Takeda Theater – at the base of the high-rise at 585 W. Kendall St. The upper floors will be used as headquarter offices and lab space for Takeda, a global pharmaceutical company.
When BioMed Realty bought the land in 2018, it was with the stipulation that whatever was built there must include an arts use. The search was on to find the right partners to help realize the cultural component.
Enter Global Arts Live, a presenter of international music and dance productions founded in 1990 without a home to call its own. It’s “an organization that’s been working in Cambridge for the better part of 40 years but has probably the fewest number of their concerts taking place in Cambridge,” said Jason Weeks, the departing executive director of Cambridge Arts. “They’re taking place in Somerville and Medford and Boston and yes, Cambridge, but all over the region, – which is great up to a point.”
With the project’s completion, the long itinerant organization becomes the anchor tenant at The Platform, bringing its deep programming experience and subscriber base, which Weeks called “enormously exciting.”
The venue also gives the Kendall Square community something to celebrate. The neighborhood of gleaming office high-rises has often struggled to attract lively crowds after the 9-to-5ers go home. A major addition to the nightlife scene such as the Platform could change the calculus for locals about where to spend their evenings.
That’s good for businesses closest to The Platform, which could benefit from more crowds looking to spend money before and after shows. Are local businesses ready for true late-night status?
A typical show at The Platform will start around 7 or 8 p.m and run for two hours before hungry and thirsty patrons spill out onto the streets of Kendall Square. Taco Bell and State Park Bar, each about a 10- to 15-minute walk away, are ready with late night hours. The offerings in the immediate neighborhood, however, including French cuisine at Batifol, modern American at Glass House, comfort food at Shy Bird and Cafe Luna all close by 10 p.m. or earlier. Mestizo Modern Mexican, just a three-minute walk away and with a closing hour of 11 p.m., might be the best option for postconcert patrons looking for a classic sit-down dining experience – at least until the other establishments in the area catch up.
While The Platform is a boon to arts in Kendall Square and a win for Global Arts Live as an organization, there are losers in the deal: the venues hosting its events for the past decades. After Somerville Theatre hosts its presentation of John Scofield’s “Electrospective” on Nov. 19, the theater and related property Crystal Ballroom are set to lose business with the organization as it moves the bulk of its calendar – averaging more than 60 shows a year – to The Platform.
The venue change raises another question. Will the Global Arts Live subscriber base, grown accustomed to events sprinkled around the Boston area, be ready to embrace Kendall Square as its mecca for international music and dance? We’re about to see.
