Gorge Amphitheatre Founders Reportedly Have New Venues in the Works

Gorge Amphitheatre founders Carol and Vince Bryan this week shared more details about The Grotto at Hilltop, a new 1,200-seat indoor performance venue in Quincy.

An extension of The Hilltop — a Bryan-affiliated nonprofit aiming to, according to a press release, bring science, the environment, and the human experience together — The Grotto at Hilltop has tapped ZGF Architects to design its digs. Concept design is currently in the works.

“We are thrilled to partner with Vince and Carol and The Hilltop on their extraordinary vision for a landmark arts and cultural destination above the Columbia,” said ZGF Principal Haruka Saito in the release. “It’s an incredible honor to help bring their vision to life and deliver a venue that will celebrate the arts, the environment, and the community for generations.”

The venue will aesthetically draw inspiration from the Columbia’s basalt cliffs and skies and is aspiring to be the country’s most sustainable performance venue, the release said. It’s also not the only new project the Bryans are putting their support behind: the Puget Sound Business Journal reported that another space — this one outdoors — is additionally being planned.

“We want the environment to be the structure for the architect to work with — not to impose a structure on it, but to look to the environment as it is, embracing the elements where they are, and allowing them to dictate the structure,” said Vince Bryan in the release. “In ZGF, we found a partner who understands that.”