In 1985, 23-year-old architect Bret Thoeny was asked to build something he had never constructed before: an artist's compound. "Back then, this wasn't done. Artist's weren't building their own compounds, only large companies or record labels were," Thoeny said in an interview with Billboard Thursday night (April 22). "But Prince, Prince had this vision to have everything under one roof. And this was decades before it was common for any individual to do that."
Thoeny is talking about Prince's infamous Paisley Park, a self-contained 55,000 square foot, $10 million creative-complex where the singer was found dead Thursday morning (April 21). Thoeny designed the space -- which was conceived while filming Purple Rain in 1983 and named for Prince's 1985 song "Paisley Park"-- in collaboration with the singer; a project boasting two state-of-the-art recording studios, a 12,400 square foot sound stage, rehearsal room, performance area, common areas and a smattering of offices -- all of which were utilized for everything from making costumes to sleeping (allegedly there were three beds in Prince's personal, two-story office. A round, a king and a daybed).
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What was the building process like?
We built it from scratch. All white aluminum, metal panels on the outside to compliment the simplicity of the landscape. Very few windows because recording studios don’t have windows, but also because it was his place, and he wanted privacy.
We constructed a large sound stage like the Hollywood Sound Stage, two recording studios, a dance rehearsal hall, costume spaces, offices, and his office. He would do films there and tour rehearsals, all his costumes, all his clothes remained there. And he was very involved in the collaboration process. He’d come check out the construction site when he was on tour, climb up on the roof to see the space, all sorts of things.
Any special requests he had?
In the early stages I did a design for the front of the building where we were going to extend this piece out, it was almost like a graphic sculpture, which was in the shape of a paisley. It was all designed but then we decided to keep it simple. It was his idea.
He also asked for the pyramid. He loved pyramids. The glass pyramid marked the entrance to the building, and there were skylight pyramids on top of his office. I think they obviously did more theatrical lighting over the years, but I know the place would light up purple when he had an event there, and they’d put purple lights all around the parameter.
His symbol, “formerly known as” didn’t exist yet, so that wasn’t built into the building.
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