The Platform, a new performing arts and community space at 585 Third St. in Cambridge, will hold a free public opening day this Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. The program includes two performances by vertical dance company BANDALOOP, which will dance on the building’s exterior, as well as performances by regional artists throughout the venue.
BANDALOOP is also scheduled to perform on the building’s exterior Thursday and Friday; the routines will be viewable by passersby, not just ticketholders, according to Cambridge Day. The venue’s opening-day listing gives the Saturday BANDALOOP performance times as 12:35 p.m. and 3:05 p.m., and lists The Bollywood Experience featuring Purnima at 2:30 p.m. Cambridge Day also reports that regional artists will perform throughout the building.
A Six-Year Build Finally Takes Shape
The Platform occupies the first three floors of the 585 Kendall development, a project six years in the making, according to Cambridge Day. BioMed Realty acquired the site in 2018 with plans for lab and office space; the outlet reports that the development also carried an expectation for an arts space at 585 Third St. Takeda is slated to occupy the floors above The Platform. That part of the site remains under construction, and its lobby is on a different side of the building, Cambridge Day reports.
GoBoston.com has described the center as 45,000 square feet. Cambridge Day reports that it includes two performance venues, rehearsal spaces, dressing rooms, green rooms and production technology. The second-floor Takeda Theater, named for its lead sponsor, is listed as seating 400 by Cambridge Day and BroadwayWorld; CambridgeUSA lists capacity at 404. The theater’s equipment is intended to spare artists from separately renting and installing their own gear, Cambridge Day reports, and a rehearsal space the same size as the theater is also included.
A Cabaret Stage and a Living-Room Lobby
The 125-seat Tempo Stage has a cabaret-style setup in the lobby and can operate at the same time as the Takeda Theater, according to Cambridge Day. The lobby includes a bar, cafe and community seating; Connie C. Chin described it to the outlet as “a living room for everyone in the community.” Livestream technology is available for conferences and other events, and The Platform plans to hold a winter market extending indoors and outdoors, Cambridge Day reports.
Visitors will also encounter Fog Labyrinth, a lobby installation made of almost 7,000 translucent acrylic rods in 14 custom-pigmented colors, according to theplatformkendall.org. The exterior of the building features over 55,000 terracotta tiles in a blue-to-orange gradient, Cambridge Day reports.
Global Arts Live Finds a Permanent Home
The Platform is to become the main performance venue for Global Arts Live, a Cambridge nonprofit that has presented artists from around the world in Boston and Cambridge since 1990 but previously had no dedicated performance space, according to Cambridge Day. Maure Aronson told the outlet that COVID-19 disrupted planning, while the need for an accessible midsize theater remained. Global Arts Live plans to program the venue about one-third of the time, with area artists and cultural organizations able to use it on the remaining nights. Cambridge Day reports that the nonprofit lists 40 Takeda Theater shows from November 2026 through June 2027 and 19 events on the Tempo Stage.
The venue is operated through 585 Arts Inc., doing business as The Platform, a collaboration launched by BioMed Realty and Global Arts Live, according to The Platform. It says 25 rental nights each year will be offered at no cost to community organizations through an application and panel-review process. Cambridge | Somerville Independent reports that Global Arts Live is moving most of its calendar—an average of more than 60 shows a year—to the new venue, a change expected to affect business at Somerville Theatre and the related Crystal Ballroom after the theater hosts John Scofield’s “Electrospective” on Nov. 19. The outlet also reports that The Platform held a members-only opening night on Nov. 6 featuring BANDALOOP and Compagnie Hervé Koubi. BroadwayWorld has also cited Greater Boston’s shortage of midsize performance spaces as a need the venue is intended to help address.
Arts Space in Cambridge’s Planning Record
A November 2020 Cambridge Planning Board recommendation on the Canal District Kendall zoning petition said both proposed development scenarios required an arts and culture space. The document describes the petition and the Board’s recommendation, not the finished Platform. The City of Cambridge says its Information Technology Department created an open dataset of organizations and venues providing arts programming in the city. The directory page does not give a total or establish a trend.
Haitian Dance Troupe Already Calls The Platform Home
Jean Appolon Expressions, a Haitian-folkloric dance group founded by Jean Appolon, has already been in residence at The Platform ahead of its public opening, according to Cambridge Day. Appolon, who started teaching Haitian folk dance at the Dance Complex in 1996, will present his company in Pouvwa (Power) on Nov. 13 and 14, a collaboration with Cambridge poet and writer Jean Dany Joachim and composer Val Jeanty, the outlet reports. The Cambridge | Somerville Independent's reporting also touches on the venue's potential ripple effects on Kendall Square's evening scene, noting that nearby restaurants including Batifol, Glass House, Shy Bird and Cafe Luna all close by 10 p.m. or earlier — a detail raised in the context of whether the new arts hub might extend nightlife hours in the neighborhood.
