Niigata City Performing Arts Center, Performance theater in Hakusan Park, Niigata, Japan.

The Niigata City Performing Arts Center, known as Ryutopia, is a long, low building in Hakusan Park with a glass curtain wall divided by a regular grid of vertical mullions and angled supports behind the glass. An opaque horizontal band caps the glass frontage and forms the lower edge of a planted, sloping roof. A smaller rectangular structure with dark glass rises near the center, set back from the main roofline. The building faces a flat lawn, a line of trees, and a body of water.

In 1988 the city added a concert hall to its Central Park plan for Hakusan Park and began a construction fund. The 1992 plan set a 2,000-seat concert hall, a 900-seat theatre and a 350-seat Noh stage on land cleared of the 1938 civic hall, tennis courts and Meikyo High School. Construction started in August 1995; the name was fixed in November 1997 and the hall opened on 22 October 1998 with a Tokyo Symphony Orchestra concert.

The nickname Ryutopia, chosen by public competition after opening, combines "Ryuto" (Willow Capital), an old name for Niigata when canals lined with willows circled the center, with "Utopia". The Noh stage seats about 350 and hosts traditional Noh and Kyogen performances.

The complex sits inside Hakusan Park: Hakusan Station on the JR Echigo Line is about a 13-minute walk, and Niigata Station is roughly 15 minutes by taxi. BRT Bandai-bashi Line buses stop at Shiyakusyo-mae, about 5 minutes on foot; the city loop bus stops at Hakusan Koen-mae.

The building includes dedicated spaces for different art forms, with a special venue for traditional Noh theater sitting alongside contemporary performance spaces. This blend of traditional and modern artistic expression gives the center its distinctive character.