Kravis Center

History of the Kravis Center

The Seed of an Idea

Early Efforts to Build the Center

Getting it Built

The Grand Opening

 

The Seed of an Idea
Having a major performing arts facility has long been a dream of Palm Beach County residents. In fact efforts to build an arts center began here in the early 1950s. The first step in this direction came with the arrival of the Palm Beach Playhouse, now the Royal Poinciana Playhouse. In 1968, one local arts pioneer, Mary Howes, along with a group of other residents, formed Fine Arts Festival, Incorporated. They sponsored six benefits to raise funds to build an arts center that would accommodate major opera, orchestra, ballet, and theatrical productions. They got as far as commissioning the late architect John Volk to draft a model. A feasibility study was conducted, and land was optioned next to the current site of the West Palm Beach Auditorium. But it became apparent that the community was not yet ready to support such a major undertaking.
 

Early Efforts to Build the Center
Over the next ten years, the arts continued to grow in the county, and by 1978, the Palm Beach County Council of the Arts (recently renamed the Palm Beach County Cultural Council) was created, largely as a result of the efforts of Alexander W. Dreyfoos, then chairman and president of Photo Electronics Corporation/WPEC TV-12, and Judith Goodman, an executive with Mr. Dreyfoos' firm. One of the goals of the council was to explore the possibility of building a major performing arts center.

By 1980, the Arts Center Committee was actively pursuing the construction of an arts center financed solely with private funds. Although a site at Currie Park on Lake Worth in West Palm Beach had already been selected, the community was not yet ready to meet the financial challenge that the Center presented.

Initial efforts to secure public funding focused on a proposed county one cent sales tax referendum. Although the referendum was defeated, results showed that some thirty percent of voters had agreed to tax themselves to build a world-class performing arts center. These results were encouraging.

Getting It Built
By 1983, plans for the location of the Center had changed. Because of neighborhood opposition, Currie Park was no longer an option. Instead, planners switched their focus to a site adjacent to Palm Beach Community College in John Prince Park. The Center gathered $20 million in public commitments, but at this point at least another $5 million needed to be raised to build the center. In 1985, Mr. Dreyfoos kicked off the private fundraising campaign with a $1 million gift from Photo Electronics Corporation/WPEC TV-12.

Then, in 1986, came a multimillion dollar contribution that shifted fundraising efforts into high-gear. A consortium of friends of Oklahoma native Raymond F. Kravis, a prominent geologist and philanthropist who wintered with his wife Bessie in Palm Beach, agreed to raise $5 million in Mr. Kravis' honor. The gift served as a major catalyst to the private fundraising campaign and inspired the Center's official name. By the time the center opened to the public in 1992, contributions in Mr. Kravis' honor totaled over $10 million.

A year long review of architects culminated in 1986 with the selection of world-renowned Canadian architect, Eberhard Zeidler of Toronto-based Zeidler-Roberts Partnership. As the community's support for the Center grew, the scope and function of the facility that was originally envisioned expanded. The estimated cost for this new type of facility was $55 million. The community responded positively to this new plan, with Barnett Bank assembling a consortium of banks to offer a $17 million construction loan, backed by county issued Industrial Development Revenue Bonds.

It seemed that all was a go, as a ground breaking ceremony took place at the community college site. However, just one month later, negotiations with the college came to a halt when it was learned that state regulations prohibited any debt financing to be used for the construction of facilities on community college campuses.

At this juncture, Henry Rolfs, Sr. offered a 5.4 acre parcel of prime downtown real estate as an alternate site. The land was previously part of Downtown/Uptown, a large-scale private redevelopment project. In addition the city offered a $5 million contribution and long-term financing for the construction of the parking garage.

At this time, Blount, Inc., builder of, amongst other major facilities, the New Orleans Superdome, was chosen as the construction company that would build the Center. Blount began the 36 month construction schedule in September of 1989. They were joined by New York-based Artec Consultants' Russell Johnson, who designed the pristine acoustics of the main concert hall. In addition, Robert Metzger Interiors, also based in New York, brought a '40s Moderne motif to everything from the carpeting and furniture to the colors of the marble.

Fundraising efforts proceeded beyond everyone's most optimistic hopes, and by the summer of 1991, it was evident the center would likely achieve an unheard of goal--a fully funded opening. The accomplishment, especially in light of the high percentage of private funding, made international headlines.

The Grand Opening
In September of 1992, the Kravis Center doors opened to an anxiously awaiting community. The Center's dedication week hosted tens of thousands of patrons for a full week of free performances featuring local arts groups.
The Gala Grand Opening took place on November 28, 1992 and featured the following program:

Act I:
Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, James Judd, Conductor
Burt Reynolds, Master of Ceremonies
Roberta Peters
Isaac Stern
Leontyne Price
Ella Fitzgerald

Act II:
Faith Prince
Lily Tomlin
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
More than 2,000 guests attended the spectacular event along with one of the largest national and foreign press corps to ever cover an arts center opening. After the star-studded show, guests proceeded to the magically transformed roof of the Kravis Center parking garage where the dinner dance took place

Namesake

Raymond and Bessie Kravis

Raymond F. Kravis was a prominent geologist and philanthropist from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who wintered in Palm Beach for more than 35 years. In 1985, a consortium of his friends donated more than $7 million to name the facility for Mr. Kravis.

Architect
Eberhard Zeidler, principal partner in the firm of Zeidler-Roberts Partnership of Toronto, Ontario. Other major works include the World Trade Center and Liberty Place One in Philadelphia.

Acoustician
Russell Johnson/Artec Consultants, New York. Major works include Symphony Hall in Birmingham, England and the Morton Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas.

Contractor
Blount, Inc. of Montgomery, Alabama. Other major works include the Louisiana Superdome and the reconstruction of Kuwait following the Gulf War.

Executive Team
Judith A. Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer
Kyle F. Roberts-Ruge, Chief Financial Officer
W. Lee Bell, Senior Director of Programming
James P. Mitchell, Senior Director of Theatre Operations and Facilities
Andrew Segaloff, Senior Director of Information Systems

Artistic Board
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Jimmy Buffett
Montserrat Caballe
Celia Lipton Farris
Peter Martins
Itzhak Perlman
Roberta Peters
Burt Reynolds
Andre Watts
Pinchas Zukerman