World Arts Stay, the achieved Cambridge nonprofit presenting group, has introduced that the forthcoming 45,000-square-foot performing arts heart it’s serving to to launch in Kendall Sq. might be referred to as The Platform (included as 585 Arts) and that Takeda — a worldwide biopharmaceutical firm and Massachusetts’ largest life sciences employer — has grow to be lead company sponsor of The Platform’s important efficiency area, to be referred to as the Takeda Theater at The Platform. Developed by BioMed Realty to learn the Cambridge group as a part of its 585 Kendall challenge, The Platform is scheduled to debut with a gap celebration on September 19, 2026.
The Platform incorporates a state-of-the-art important stage accommodating 400 patrons, a rehearsal studio that matches the working area of the three,100-square-foot important stage, a 125-seat cabaret stage, and public gathering areas in a ground-floor commons space with an indoor backyard, bar, and café. As a brand new facility within the regional cultural ecosystem, Takeda Theater at The Platform addresses a long-documented want for a mid-sized skilled theater that advantages the broader arts group. The efficiency and rehearsal areas at The Platform might be obtainable to unbiased artists and group organizations at backed charges, with 25 nights per yr provided hire free. The complete heart has been designed with shut consideration to accessibility that ensures it is going to be welcoming to all guests.
Past the performances introduced by native unbiased artists and group organizations, one third of The Platform’s creative programming might be curated by World Arts Stay, together with music and dance performances that the group has introduced domestically for 35 years.
World Arts Stay Founder & Director of Creative Packages Maure Aronson says “The Platform will considerably enhance our programming and develop the boundaries of what we’re capable of current. For years World Arts Stay and different space presenters have confronted challenges in securing appropriately sized, inexpensive efficiency areas. The Platform will give audiences an opportunity to see extra jazz, extra dance, and a wider vary of performing artists.”
The constructing’s exterior texture was impressed by the vertical folds of a theater curtain, rising to disclose what’s behind it; its rounded kind evokes a heat, welcoming area. The emblem echoes these design components and gestures to the form of the principle stage.
World Arts Stay Chief Govt Officer Connie C. Chin says the identify displays the power’s cultural and group mission. “The Platform isn’t just a efficiency venue. It’s a platform for supporting artists and nonprofits; a platform for work that expands our views; a platform for tradition, connection and dialog. Serving as an important cultural hub, native, nationwide and worldwide artists can have a house to create and current significant work.”
The principle stage might be named Takeda Theater at The Platform, in recognition of the corporate’s $3 million, multi-year sponsorship settlement. Takeda has leased 585 Kendall’s roughly 600,000-square-foot lab and workplace area that would be the dwelling of Takeda’s World Analysis & Improvement (R&D) Heart—making a purpose-built facility to ship life-transforming therapies for sufferers. The lease is a part of Takeda’s long-term technique to create one Cambridge campus in Kendall Sq., together with its suburban campus in Lexington.
Julie Kim, president of the U.S. Enterprise Unit and U.S. nation head for Takeda, andwho was appointed to be Takeda’s subsequent CEO says, “Takeda Theater at The Platform might be a spot the place folks can join and encourage each other via the performing arts. Our continued help for the Cambridge group is unwavering, and we’re proud to be a part of this essential, artistic area.”
BioMed Realty, a Blackstone portfolio firm and the biggest personal operator of world-class actual property for the life science and expertise industries, developed the cultural hub with the Cambridge group in thoughts and chosen World Arts Stay to function the performing arts heart together with its important theater and its 15,000-square-foot floor ground public area. 585 Kendall was designed by CBT Architects, and is being constructed by Suffolk.
“Since lengthy earlier than we broke floor at 585 Kendall, this has been a challenge for—and knowledgeable by—the Kendall Sq. group,” says Salvatore Zinno, Senior Vice President of Improvement at BioMed Realty. “We’re assured that our choice to enlist the experience of World Arts Stay to ascertain and function The Platform arts heart will carry our native arts and science communities, neighbors, and guests alike, collectively to showcase and contribute to the artistry, innovation, and ingenuity that defines the Canal District Kendall neighborhood.”
The Platform is presently beneath development at 585 Kendall Avenue in Cambridge, positioned just a few blocks from the Kendall MBTA station, and is scheduled for occupancy in Spring 2026. After a spring and summer time spent putting in gear, transferring in, and testing the methods and areas, The Platform can have its grand opening celebration in Fall 2026.
