The Center for Arts and Innovation | Boca Raton

The Center for Arts & Innovation is poised to catalyze the convergence of creativity and innovation into four societal pillars wherein those elements intersect constantly: the arts, education, business, and community. The architectural and programmatic expression of that convergence, coupled with the design’s further refinement, ideation, partnership generation, and maturation over the 18-month design process will allow The Center to transcend its impact far beyond South Florida and present a flagship example for projects around the world to follow.

The Center’s purpose is to pioneer a new approach to how the world designs, imagines, programs, utilizes, and embraces its cultural infrastructure. By catalyzing leading creators, thinkers, students, and entrepreneurs, those who interact and are impacted by campuses like this will thrive, and in turn, define tomorrow. This 21st-century campus will provide a platform for new and inspiring works and ideas, opportunities for AI interaction with both the building and its visitors, comprehensive STEAM education in partnership with local and regional educational institutions to shape the next generation of leaders and creators, and cultivate innovation through an activated series of spaces where ideation and creation can thrive; all in a campus with a globally inspired design where the community can come together and truly connect.

The new campus will consist of a three-story building serving an ensemble of functional needs and providing multi-use spaces that are welcoming, permeable, luminous, and open to all. The eastern side of the building will hold the ‘main venue’, a large multi-functional, convertible event, exhibition, and performance space with the ability to merge seamlessly with the outdoor piazza, enabling greater-scaled events. The main venue is intended to be highly flexible, allowing for a wide variety of convening, exhibitions, performances, and innovative programming. The Center will also contain a public lobby, large flexible working spaces, dedicated workshops, maker space, creator residences, and a startup incubator, as well as educational and social spaces open to the public, all designed to foster collision and innovation of The Center’s four pillars from within.

The third floor will host the city’s first covered rooftop terrace with food and beverage service, offering views overlooking Plaza Real and the city’s downtown. The roof will take advantage of the abundant Florida sun to produce both electricity and hot water through 100,000 sf of revolutionary hybrid photovoltaic solar collectors. Above the roof, there will be a special 100-person capacity panoramic space, known as the Belvedere, dedicated to both the public and special events with 360-degree views of the city, ocean, and beyond.

The central exterior space that grounds the project will be known as the Piazza. Maintaining the current capacity level, the open plaza will continue to be used as an amphitheater for outdoor performances as well as special events, daily programming, public events, as well as temporary exhibitions in collaboration with the Boca Raton Museum of Art. It is intended to be a vibrant and lively place open to the community, destined to enhance social interaction, urban culture, and human flourishing in the city.