Clear Space Announces Design Team for New Performing Arts Center
Marvel Architects, Charcoalblue, and GMB Named Architectural and Engineering Partners
for Sussex County’s First Purpose-Built Performing Arts Center
Rehoboth Beach, DE - Clear Space Theatre Company (CSTC) announces the selection of the architectural and engineering team that will lead the design and development of Sussex County’s first purpose‑built performing arts center. The milestone advances CSTC’s vision for a state‑of‑the‑art facility to be developed through a public-private partnership with the City of Rehoboth Beach on the city‑owned parcel at 11 Christian Street.
Following a competitive national search, CSTC selected Marvel Architects, the internationally recognized architecture and urban design practice, to lead facility planning and design. Marvel will partner with Delaware-based GMB, providing local architecture and civil engineering expertise, and Charcoalblue, a globally recognized theater planning and acoustics consultancy. The team is further supported by specialists in landscape architecture, structural engineering, building systems, sustainability, and other key disciplines. Together, they will design a modern, flexible, and community‑centered performing arts complex serving audiences, artists, students, and visitors throughout coastal Delaware and beyond.
A Collaborative Team to Shape the Region’s Cultural Future
CSTC Managing Director Joe Gfaller shared, “We were thrilled by the level of enthusiasm from major architects and theater designers from across the country to bring this project to life. Of the 23 firms which submitted, it was clear that Marvel brought the strongest combination of skill and experience, along with a clear understanding of the role our community will play in both the design and the future life of this exciting new facility. In the weeks to come, Marvel will begin listening sessions with constituents from across coastal Delaware. Through what they hear and learn, they will help us envision a new building that will become a postcard for our region, a source of community connection, and an economic engine for the arts in Sussex County.”
CSTC Artistic Director Wes Drummond adds, “The theater and arts centers that this team have already designed are consistently best in class. I cannot wait to see what they will create with us here in Rehoboth Beach.”
Marvel Founding Principal, Jonathan Marvel commented, "For Clear Space, the ambition extends beyond creating a new venue for performances to creating a cultural and civic place for Rehoboth Beach. Marvel and Charcoalblue bring a longstanding collaboration to this vision, with projects including the award-winning St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn; TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Arkansas, a purpose-built home for a regional theater company organized around theaters, rehearsal and production spaces, and a public commons; Broadway’s Lyric Theatre; and current projects for the National Black Theatre in Harlem and Arts Center Lake Placid. This work demonstrates how performing arts spaces can combine artistic excellence with gathering, learning, and community life. That approach is particularly relevant in Rehoboth Beach, both a year-round community and a destination. Working with GMB, Clear Space, and the community, the team will explore how the center can engage Christian Street, contribute to downtown, and welcome people beyond performances—creating more than a theater, but a cultural commons rooted in the character of coastal Delaware."
“GMB is excited to bring our local knowledge and experience in coastal Delaware to a cultural hub of this magnitude,” said Morgan H. Helfrich, AIA, LEED AP, GMB’s Director of Architecture. “As the local architectural and civil engineering partner, we understand the community, the coastal environment, and the agencies and processes that shape projects in Rehoboth Beach. We’re honored to help translate Clear Space’s vision into a sustainable, thoughtfully designed facility that feels at home in Rehoboth Beach and enriches Sussex County for generations to come.”
"I am so proud of everyone who has volunteered their time to reach this decision. Marvel's motto that ‘everything must have meaning’ resonated with our board and all those who have spent countless hours giving their time, talents, and emotional bandwidth in service of a shared vision to create a meaningful beacon for the arts in Rehoboth Beach, Sussex County and the greater Delmarva region.,” said Megan Nehrbas, CSTC Board Chair.
About the Project
The new performing arts center will include a proscenium mainstage theater, a flexible black box performance space, a dedicated rehearsal studio, expanded public gathering areas, backstage support facilities, gallery space, and integrated parking solutions that support the City’s ongoing master plan for future development in Rehoboth Beach.
CSTC’s 18‑month site selection process concluded in October 2025 with the decision to accept the City of Rehoboth’s offer to house CSTC at 11 Christian Street for $1 per year lease for up to 50 years, following the relocation of the Cape Henlopen Senior Center to its new home on Hebron Road. Remaining in downtown Rehoboth Beach reaffirms the company’s commitment to the city it has called home since 2010.
The project is being guided by Maryland-based Turner & Townsend Heery, serving as CSTC's owner's representative. Working alongside CSTC leadership, stakeholders, and the design team, Turner & Townsend Heery is providing leadership in project planning, budgeting, scheduling, community engagement, fundraising support, design management, and coordination with local agencies and partners as the project advances through concept design and future phases of development.
With the design team now in place, CSTC will begin the next phase of project development, including community engagement, facility programming refinement, site and parking analyses, code and permitting assessments, project budgeting, and fundraising activities. These efforts will inform the development of the project's concept design, helping to align community needs, operational goals, and site opportunities into a cohesive vision for the future facility.
A Regional Hub for the Arts
Clear Space Theatre Company extends its gratitude to the City of Rehoboth Beach, its donors, audiences, and advocates whose support has made this next step possible. Updates on the project will be available at www.clearspacetheatre.org.
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About Clear Space Theatre Company
Clear Space Theatre Company is Delaware’s second-largest professional non-profit theater and the state’s most prolific producer of professional theater. A 501(c)(3) cultural organization, CSTC was founded in 2004 and is currently located at 20 Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971. Each year, the company produces a robust production season of plays and musicals, including a summer repertory festival, a children’s theater series featuring young artists, and a cabaret series. The company’s Performing Arts Institute has served over 10,000 students over CSTC’s history, currently reaching students of all ages, building self-confidence, inspiring collaborative problem-solving, and awakening creativity. Under the current leadership of Managing Director Joe Gfaller, who joined CSTC in fall 2023, and Artistic Director Wes Drummond, who joined CSTC in summer 2026, Clear Space Theatre Company is comprised of a remarkable team of full-time, part-time, and volunteer administrators, artists, and educators.
About Marvel Architects
Marvel is an architecture, landscape architecture, planning, urban design, and interiors practice with offices in New York City, San Juan, Richmond, and Barcelona. Their work spans cultural institutions, performing arts spaces, public landscapes, housing, civic facilities, adaptive reuse, and mixed-use projects. Across this range, they design buildings and public spaces that strengthen communities and respond to the physical, social, and cultural character of their surroundings.
From the center of Manhattan to the outer reaches of Queens, from municipalities across Puerto Rico to small-town Arkansas, Marvel believes design excellence should be accessible to everyone, everywhere.
Marvel has built a nationally recognized practice at the intersection of architecture, public space, and community. Their collaborative process brings clients, communities, and interdisciplinary teams into the design process, allowing the team to explore multiple possibilities before arriving at solutions rooted in place. This approach has been recognized with more than 200 design awards, including the AIA’s highest honors.
About Charcoalblue
Charcoalblue is an international design consultancy bringing a global reach and localized expertise to projects of all scales, with a particular focus on the performing arts, culture and entertainment. Working in partnership with art organizations, architects, engineering teams, and contractors, Charcoalblue helps to create extraordinary spaces where people come together. Charcoalblue offers a holistic approach that consists of venue planning and auditorium design, acoustic design, experience design, and design and specification of theatre systems – seating, stage lighting, stage engineering, and audiovisual. Charcoalblue's diverse portfolio includes a number of notable performing arts projects with Marvel including St. Ann's Warehouse, Arts Center Lake Placid, the Doris Duke Theatre for Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, and TheatreSquared.
About Turner & Townsend Heery
Founded in 1952 and formerly known as Heery International Inc., the firm operates throughout the United States as part of Turner & Townsend. It specializes in project and program management for public sector organizations, with industry-leading experts in K-12 education, higher education, cultural, healthcare, justice, sports, aviation and government facilities. With a portfolio of cultural, performing arts, and civic projects across the United States, the multidisciplinary team at Turner & Townsend Heery helps organizations of all sizes transform their vision into vibrant destinations that serve communities for generations