This artist’s rendering depicts the plaza outside the Boston Center for the Arts on Tremont Street in the Hub’s South End neighborhood following its redesign by St. Louis-based Patterhn Design.

One year after the Boston Center for the Arts solicited ideas to improve the vacant plaza outside its historic South End arts complex, a Missouri design team has won a national design competition to transform the city block.

“We’re thrilled to be moving forward with this talented design team to ensure the creative use of our public spaces to connect the arts to the community,” said Libbie Shufro, BCA president and chief executive officer. “This environmental design initiative epitomizes our mission to create access to the arts and interaction with the artists of our times.”

A central feature of the winning design, titled “Softscape,” is the use of wood as the main surface for the BCA plaza, giving it the feeling of a boardwalk. The plan of Eric Hoffman and Tony Patterson of St. Louis-based Patterhn Design is expected to transform the plaza into a welcoming public gathering place providing interactive experiences with the arts.

The proposal would extend the flooring across the plaza and connect to an artists’ courtyard and to sidewalks, forming a kind of threshold for the entire campus. The designers also recommend adding a new ticketing kiosk that would balance BCA’s famous Cyclorama exhibition hall while buffering a new outdoor performance space from adjacent street noise.

A ‘Subtle’ Choice

Plans to reconfigure the block on Tremont Street from Clarendon Street to Berkeley Streets commenced a year ago when BCA held a design charette, a collaborative session where participants draft a solution to a landscape problem. Shufro sought ideas to renovate the space into an area that not only will serve as a gathering place, but also can be adapted to accommodate larger seasonal activities and special events. In addition, she hoped a redesigned space would offer a friendly environment that unites the arts with the South End neighborhood.

Later, Shufro invited artists, design students, landscape architects and other architects to register for the contest. More than 100 applicants applied for the two-stage competition that included an extensive community process and a daylong review of the finalists’ presentations. Sixty-six designs were submitted, with one-third from the Boston area and the rest from across the country.

Five finalists were announced in June and invited to assemble design teams and revise their plans in response to BCA’s and community considerations. The design jury then reconvened to review the revised proposals and select a winner.

“Our goal is to bring arts and entertainment outside and encourage the community to come inside,” said Shufro. “Most people don’t know what exists behind our brick wall and we want to spill out onto the plaza and invite people in.”

Before construction begins on the $3 million project, BCA must refine its conceptual design, seeking input from its resident artists and arts organizations, city departments and the community. In addition, permits will be required from the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the South End Landmarks Commission, according to Shufro.

Prataap Patrose, a BCA board member, said the winning design was a standout because the boardwalk not only will serve as a hardwood stage setting for public events but also as an extension of Montgomery Street, a portion of which was taken to be used for the plaza.

“A lot of the entries were in-your-face, sock-it-to-you ideas, including one that wrapped the whole building around a giant video screen,” Patrose said. “But the one the jury chose was subtle, which we found very appealing.”

Patterhn Design began as a collaboration between Hoffman and Patterson while they were at Washington University’s Graduate School of Architecture. This is their first major commission. Hoffman, a visiting assistant professor at Washington University, collaborated on the Walker Art Center expansion with his previous office, Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, and the Pritzker Prize-winning office of Herzog & de Meuron.

Patterson worked with the offices of Marlon Blackwell Architect in Fayetteville, Ark., and MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He had a hand in a number of public and private projects with each firm.

Now in its 35 year, the Boston Center for the Arts is an urban cultural village, nurturing and showcasing the performing and visual arts and artists. BCA provides a home for artists, a destination for audiences and an arts connection for youth and the community in Greater Boston.

In all, BCA offers 190,000 square feet of arts space, including 20,000 square feet designated for affordable studio and office space for artists and arts organizations. Because of its new theaters, BCA’s attendance has almost doubled to more than 200,000 visitors annually.

BCA is located on a 4-acre complex that includes 50 working artist studios, six live/work spaces, the Cyclorama – the site of exhibitions, performances and community events. It also houses the Community Music Center of Boston, the Art Connection, the Boston Ballet Costume Shop, three theaters and a rehearsal studio. The adjacent Tremont Estates Building, originally an organ factory built in 1850, is home to more than 50 artist studios, the Mills Gallery, two rehearsal spaces and Hamersley’s Bistro. Boston Ballet’s headquarters, a 1991 building that contains rehearsal and administrative spaces and a ballet school, is also part of the complex.

“We want people to go to our theaters and exhibitions but not have to rush in and rush out,” Shufro said. “We want people to hang out and for this to be a community gathering place. We want to bring arts and entertainment outside and encourage the community to come inside. “Most people don’t know what exists behind our brick wall and we want to spill out on to the plaza and invite people in.”

A revised plaza is the latest development in BCA’s ongoing physical transformation. In 2004, the campus expanded to include the Calderwood Pavilion – which houses two theaters – a historic collaboration between BCA, Huntington Theatre Co., the city of Boston and The Druker Co. The new theaters, along with the Atelier|505 condominium and retail complex, have created a new gateway to the South End and enlivened the already bustling area with new restaurants, shops and services.