Harvard University | Lowell Hall

Harvard University | Lowell Hall

To create a new 352-seat performance space for music and a larger, more comfortable lobby, a portion of the old pitched floor was demolished in an existing university lecture hall building originally built in 1902. The floor height was raised to create a sufficiently large rehearsal and performance area, and a new maple floor laid over three feet of fiberglass fill to create acoustic separation from the rehearsal/seminar space in the basement.

The seating creates an intimate, theatre-in-the-round experience that works for both performances and lectures. New raised seating risers improve sightlines and relate well to the balcony above. A “performance wall” provides a screen with hinged doors for hidden instrument storage.

In the balcony, re-configured and raised seating risers improve sightlines, and perimeter acoustical curtains provide variable acoustical control for speech and music, and room darkening for lectures.

Project Details
  • Client: Harvard University
  • Architect: Robert Olson & Associates
  • Completion Year: 1994
  • Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • Acoustician: Kirkegaard & Associates
  • Capacity: 352 seats

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Harvard University | Farkas Hall

Harvard University | Farkas Hall

Leers Weinzapfel Architects and FDA were charged with renovating the former Hasty Pudding space. The design team quickly realized that the “renovation” would involve much more than a few repairs, new seats and a coat of paint. Large portions of the building’s structure would have to be replaced, and the building had to somehow grow to provide new or expanded spaces for public and performer accommodations, a larger stage, new HVAC systems, and other requirements mandated by codes.

Patrons will see the brick building they’ve known for years. However, behind the renovated front portion is an entirely new building. The theatre, as renovated, is a dynamic, contemporary space with steeply-raked seating, lighting catwalks, control booths, and a new orchestra pit.

The theatre has twice as much space as the original, a remarkable achievement considering that the building is landlocked on three sides, and any significant height increase was prohibited by the City of Cambridge. The original theater rose 50 feet above the street, and had a seven foot deep basement. The new building is 54 feet tall, with an additional 40 feet underground. In addition to the public and backstage support spaces, Farkas Hall has a new rehearsal room, prop shop, offices and meeting rooms.

Project Details
  • Client: Harvard University
  • Architect: Leers Weinzapfel Architects
  • Completion Year: 2007
  • Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • Acoustician: Acentech
  • Capacity: 280 seats

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Hamilton College | Kennedy Center for Theatre and the Studio Arts

Hamilton College

Kennedy Center for Theatre and the Studio Arts

When the Hamilton College theatre department came to FDA, their performing arts facility was in desperate need of an upgrade: there was a lack of adequate wing space and fly space, there were cramped and ill-equipped scenery and costume shops, no studio theatre for teaching and rehearsal space, and only one classroom. The brand new arts facility will address these problems, enabling the department to expand its productions and provide students with vastly improved performance and teaching venues.

The design of the new building features a fully equipped 175-seat flexible theatre with support spaces and dressing rooms; a 100-seat student-driven laboratory theatre, which will be used for senior projects, class projects, guest artists and the occasional public performance; a studio with selected lighting, seating, and sound equipment, which will be used as a teaching space for performance-based classes; a connected seminar room that will augment the studio space; and new scene shops, costume shops, and storage areas.

The new facility will provides a focus for creative activity, student life and the presentation of timely issues, enriching the entire campus culture.

Project Details
  • Client: Hamilton College
  • Architect: Machado and Silvetti Associates
  • Completion Year: 2014
  • Location: Clinton, New York
  • Acoustician: Acoustic Dimensions
  • Capacity: 175 seats

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Olympia Theater at The Gusman Center for the Performing Arts

Olympia Theater

Gusman Center for the Performing Arts

Formerly known as the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts, Olympia Theatre in downtown Miami opened in 1926 as a silent movie palace and amazed residents with its Moorish-themed ‘atmospheric’ architecture. Originally designed by John Eberson, it was renovated extensively in the 1970’s by famed Miami architect Morris Lapidus and re-opened as the home of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2003, the 2,000-seat theatre was given a new, phased renovation. The design team carefully restored the building’s intricate original plaster work and decorative painting. FDA updated the building’s technical systems with new stage rigging and lighting, and inconspicuously added a new stage lighting cove in the ceiling over the main auditorium to preserve the building’s original star ceiling (an Eberson trademark).

FDA also designed new seating layouts to improve the sightlines of the hall and bring the theatre into compliance with present-day ADA accessibility requirements. Work on the Gusman Center continues with lobby restoration; plans for a backstage addition are also under consideration.

Project Details
  • Client: Gusman Center for the Performing Arts
  • Architect: R.J. Heisenbottle
  • Completion Year: 2003
  • Location: Miami, Florida
  • Acoustician: Artec
  • Capacity: 2,000 seats

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Great Lakes Center for the Arts

Great Lakes Center for the Arts

The Great Lakes Center for the Arts is a national destination known for unique cultural performances and events, a leading regional arts and arts education provider and an internationally recognized center for important intellectual dialogue. Since the curtains went up in 2018, the Center has presented a year-round line-up of programming across all genres, visiting artists, intellectual dialogue, movies and film, and educational programming, offering exceptional opportunities to bring world-class performances to the shores of Lake Michigan with virtually limitless possibilities to inspire, entertain, and educate.

The Great Lakes Center for the Arts is equipped with sound reinforcement, electronic architecture, show relay, and production communications systems. The sound reinforcement system is a multi-channel left/center/right system with line array loudspeakers. The system was designed to be rider-friendly, meaning that it meets the requirements of celebrity performers’ technical requirements contracts. An electronic architecture system has been provided and allows acoustics of the venue to be electronically optimized to match the varied requirements of the wide range of programming, from cinema to symphony. The EA system includes approximately 100 loudspeakers discreetly located with the audience chamber. These loudspeakers also support Dolby Atmos cinema sound playback.

Project Details
  • Client: Great Lakes Center for the Arts
  • Architect: TowerPinkster
  • Completion Year: 2018
  • Location: Bay Harbor, Michigan

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Getty Villa | The Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman Theater

Getty Villa

The Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman Theater

FDA was brought on board the Getty Villa design team by architects Machado + Silvetti. This project included renovations to the Museum’s original 1974 facilities and the addition of gallery space, classrooms, bookstore, a cafe and research library. FDA consulted on the design of the 250- seat indoor auditorium as well as the 450- seat outdoor amphitheater.

The smaller room, a sophisticated auditorium, was designed for classic museum lectures and presentations. Its stage is also large enough for dance and theatrical productions, and has the necessary green room and dressing room amenities for performances. FDA creatively integrated all of the technical equipment now expected for modern day productions without compromising the architect’s vision for this structure. The space is equipped with state-of-art stage lighting, rigging and drapery systems to facilitate quick changeovers with minimum effort.

The design of the outdoor theatre, carved into the Malibu hills, is based on the archetype of the ancient Greek amphitheater, and presents music, theatre and dance. FDA designed the technical infrastructure to allow touring groups to bring in their own lighting and audio equipment and plug-into the theatre’s systems for quick and easy setups.

Project Details
  • Client: The Getty Center
  • Architect: Machado + Silvetti
  • Completion Year: 2006
  • Location: Malibu, California

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Georgia State University, Rialto Center for the Arts

Georgia State University

Rialto Center for the Arts

Working with Atlanta’s Economic Development Corporation and architect Richard Rothman, FDA transformed a nondescript 1960’s movie theatre into an attractive, functional, multipurpose and actively programmed performing arts space.

Reconfigured as a 833-seat room, the Rialto is the university’s premiere venue for music. FDA retrofitted the theatre with a new stage, and with state-of-the-art acoustical, stage lighting, and rigging to allow it to host an active and varied concert program.

After the theater’s roof was raised 12 feet. The Rialto Center now boasts superb acoustics. Interior renovations include a larger lobby to handle patrons, box office facilities, ADA-accessible improvements, new stage with proscenium, orchestra pit and 833 new comfortable seats. The adjacent eight-floor Haas-Howell Building houses the backstage facilities, the Dahlberg Room (the Green Room), and administrative offices for the Rialto Center on the second and third floors.

Project Details
  • Client: Atlanta Economic Development Corporation
  • Architect: Richard Rothman Assoc.
  • Arch. of Record: Gardner Spencer Smith
  • Completion Year: 1996
  • Location: Atlanta, Georgia
  • Acoustician: Klepper Marshall King
  • Capacity: 833 seats

Links

Georgetown University, Davis Performing Arts Center

Georgetown University

Davis Performing Arts Center

For the first time, Georgetown University has a space specifically designed for theatre study and performance. FDA and H3HC Architects designed the Davis Center in consultation with theater professionals in the University’s academic departments. Georgetown also asked FDA to help review building plans and recommend how to appropriately outfit the space. The complex includes two spaces: the 230 seat Gonda Theatre and the 100 seat Devine Studio Theatre, plus scene and costume shops.

With state-of-the-art equipment throughout, the Davis Center now provides students and faculty with teaching laboratories for performance and design, two performance venues, a Green Rooms for actors, and temperature-controlled storage spaces for costumes and set pieces. The space also houses the administrative offices for the Program in Performing Arts as well as the faculty offices for the Theater Program.

Project Details
  • Client: Georgetown University
  • Architect: H3HC
  • Completion Year: 2005
  • Location: Washington, Dist of Columbia
  • Acoustician: Jaffe Holden

Links

France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, Hippodrome Theatre

France-Merrick Performing Arts Center

Hippodrome Theatre

After years of standing empty, this landmark 1914 Thomas Lamb theatre was renovated as the centerpiece of a new downtown performing arts center, which its proponents correctly envisioned would serve as a catalyst for the revitalization of Baltimore’s West Side.

The Hippodrome – with 2,200 seats – is principally a venue for Broadway tours. Ornate side seating boxes, removed during its life as a movie theatre, were reinstated. The existing stage was replaced with a new 100-feet wide and 50-feet deep stagehouse, new rigging and stage lighting systems, and an 80-foot high grid. Expanded lobbies and a special, designated VIP lobby, along with additional rest rooms, were part of the project The Hippodrome now presents.

FDA programmed support facilities, including new dressing rooms, a green room, offices, and ancillary facilities, and designed and specified new stage equipment and lighting systems.

Project Details
  • Client: Maryland Stadium Authority, Theatre Management Group
  • Architect: Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer
  • Completion Year: 2002
  • Location: Baltimore, Maryland
  • Acoustician: JHS Acoustics
  • Capacity: 2,200 seats

Links

Florida Memorial College | Lou Rawls Center for the Performing Arts

Florida Memorial College

Lou Rawls Center for the Performing Arts

Florida Memorial College dedicated its renovated and refurbished performing arts center to singer Lou Rawls, 69, who, in the past few years, has forged a strong relationship with the college.

The Center contains a 450-seat theater, with state-of-the-art lighting, rigging, and sound systems. Construction included renovation of the existing auditorium and major additions to the facility, including a new full-height stagehouse. Seating was completely reconfigured to meet ADA accessibility requirements, as well as to assure excellent sightlines. And finally, a new dressing room and an intimate outdoor performance area were added.

“There’s not a bad seat in the house,” said Gary Parker, director of facilities management and plant operations for the college. “For a campus our size, it’s a gem.”

The multipurpose center was financed with grants from the Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Council, the State Cultural Arts Department, individual donors and the Bush Foundation, a private foundation based in St. Paul, Minn. that supports historically black colleges.

Project Details
  • Client: Florida Memorial College
  • Architect: R.J. Heisenbottle
  • Completion Year: 2004
  • Location: Miami, Florida
  • Acoustician: Artec
  • Capacity: 450 seats

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