Detroit Opera House

Detroit Opera House

When the Michigan Opera Theatre needed to expand, it acquired the historic Grand Circus Theatre (built in 1922), along with two adjacent office buildings and three parking lots. Its plan was to restore the auditorium and expand audience and performer amenities to assure the future of the highly successful Midwestern opera company.

To achieve all this, a new 12,000-square-foot stagehouse and lobby were constructed, and adjoining towers incorporated into the complex as dressing rooms, patron service areas, and offices for the opera staff. The interior of the Grand Circus Theatre was carefully restored to its original decorative grandeur.

Renovation was completed in phases. The existing stagehouse, was rebuilt with an ample 65-foot stage depth and 110-foot proscenium opening (wing to wing). Now, MOT has a world-class, 2,700-seat opera house which boasts the largest stage and the most comprehensive technical capability of any theatre in the region; it can mount grand productions with ease. As part of its work, FDA designed and specified new rigging and stage lighting systems and controls that will serve the opera well into the future.

Project Details
  • Client: Michigan Opera Theatre
  • Architect: The Albert Khan Collective
  • Arch. of Record: James P. Ryan & Partners
  • Completion Year: 1997
  • Location: Detroit, Michigan
  • Acoustician: Jaffe Holden Acoustics
  • Capacity: 2,700 seats

Links

SUNY Purchase, Center for Integrated Technology Learning

SUNY Purchase
Center for Integrated Technology Learning

This project integrated the Theater Arts & Film programs and unified the various programs scattered throughout the campus. Portions of the new CITL occupy existing space under an exterior plaza, previously used for storage and receiving. The CITL includes black box theatres, screening rooms, performance studios, production and editing studios, film classrooms, and faculty and administrative space. The facility provides a new entry pavilion and gathering space, designed to connect the public arrival experience up through the plaza to the heart of the campus. Natural light fills the new center, providing a transparency and contrast to the surrounding architecture and consequentially increasing visibility for the Film, Theater, and Media programs.

Project Details
  • Client: State University Construction Fund
  • Arch. of Record: FXCollaborative
  • Completion Year: 2017
  • Location: Purchase, New York
  • Building Size: 75,000 s.f.

Links

Related Projects

SUNY Oswego Tyler Hall Theatre
SUNY Oswego, School of Communications Media and the Arts (SCMA)
SUNY Purchase, Center for Integrated Technology Learning
SUNY Potsdam Performing Arts Center

Richard Stockton University, Elizabeth B. Alton Auditorium

Richard Stockton University

Elizabeth B. Alton Auditorium

Completed in 2009, the former A-Wing Lecture Hall is now the Elizabeth B. Alton Auditorium: a 6,000-sf gut renovation/adaptive reuse of an existing one-floor auditorium space. It has been transformed into a 276-seat, tiered lecture hall and performing arts center. It features a high-performance audio and video system to accommodate live performances, as well as lectures and seminars. The project utilized the existing shell and opened it up at the primary viewing wall to introduce a two-story window wall that provides views to the nearby forest and lake. The main entrance to the space was moved from the first floor to the second floor; a small foot bridge was constructed for access from the main gallery.

Project Details
  • Client: Richard Stockton University
  • Architect: Mills + Schnoering Architects, LLC
  • Completion Year: 2009
  • Location: Galloway, New Jersey
  • Building Size: 6,000 s.f.
  • Capacity: 276 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

Links

Hult Center for the Performing Arts | Silva Concert Hall

Hult Center for the Performing Arts
Silva Concert Hall

A 2,500-seat multipurpose theatre and 500-seat drama theatre comprise the Hult Center, one of the nation’s most active and successful performing arts complexes. Since it opened in 1984, the Center has been credited with playing a significant role in helping to revitalize Eugene’s economy, from the mid ’80s, when the city was economically depressed through present day.

The spacious 2,500-seat Silva Concert Hall is a multipurpose proscenium theatre with a horseshoe-shaped auditorium flanked by curved loges, a mezzanine, and balconies. The smaller Soreng Theater has a flexible proscenium that allows smaller companies a range of possibilities for experimental staging.

FDA took a lead role in shaping the design of the two halls, developing functional and attractive seating plans that break down the scale of the large hall, and creating smaller, more intimate seating groups. Additionally we designed and specified rigging and lighting equipment and helped the archtitects carefully integrate the equipment into the room’s architecture.

Project Details
  • Client: City of Eugene, Oregon
  • Architect: Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates
  • Acoustician: Jaffe Holden Acoustics
  • Completion Year: 1982
  • Location: Eugene, Oregon
  • Lighting: Fisher Marantz Stone
  • Building Size: 120,000 s.f.
  • Capacity: 2448 seats

Links

Related Projects

Hult Center for the Performing Arts | Soreng Theater
Hult Center for the Performing Arts | Silva Concert Hall

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

Links

Related Projects

Harvard University | Lowell Hall
Harvard University | Farkas Hall

Clay Center, Maier Foundation Performance Hall

Clay Center, Maier Foundation Performance Hall

The Clay Center, in West Virginia’s capital city of Charleston, was inspired by the desire to bring a wide range of cultural events to the region.

The 1,883-seat world-class Maier Foundation Performance Hall houses the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra. Maier Hall also accommodates a range of performance types including Broadway shows, without sacrificing intimacy or sightlines.

FDA contributed to all aspects of the project’s design, including helping plan and design the 55 foot wide, 45 foot deep stage to allow diverse production styles. The double pit lift enables the technical staff to raise or lower two sections of flooring either individually or together. When the seats are removed and both lifts are raised into position, the stage can be extended into the audience. When they are lowered, an orchestra pit is created for musicians to accompany either a theatre performance or a Broadway show.

The 200-seat black box theatre in the complex doubles as a rehearsal room and is the site of a range of community events, rehearsals, recitals, drama, and dance.

Project Details
  • Client: The Clay Center
  • Architect: Calloway Johnson Moore West
  • Completion Year: 2003
  • Location: Charleston, West Virginia
  • Acoustician: Jaffe Holden Acoustics
  • Building Size: 227,000 s.f.
  • Capacity: 1,883 seats

Links

Regional Center for the Arts, Trumbull

Regional Center for the Arts, Trumbull

The Regional Center for the Arts (RCA) is a part time public interdistrict magnet high school for Fairfield County students interested in the performing arts. RCA promotes voluntary integration by encouraging collaboration and cooperation among socioeconomic and ethnically diverse school district.

In the fall of 2007, C.E.S. opened a brand-new state-of-the-art facility for RCA students. Located at 23 Oakview Drive in Trumbull, the new Regional Center for the Arts building has a 250-seat main stage, a 100-seat intimate studio theatre, seven classrooms for music, musical theatre, acting and voice, six dance studios, and two music rooms to accommodate music ensemble and jazz band rehearsals.

Currently, 212 high school students in grades 9 -12 from Bridgeport, Fairfield, Trumbull, Norwalk, Greenwich, Stamford, Stratford, New Canaan, Monroe, Darien, Fairfield, Wilton, Ridgefield, and Shelton school districts attend.

Project Details
  • Client: Cooperative Educational Services
  • Architect: JCJ Architects
  • Arch. of Record: Wiles Architect
  • Completion Year: 2007
  • Location: Trumbull, Connecticut
  • Acoustician: Jaffe Holden Acoustics
  • Building Size: 49,000 s.f.
  • Capacity: 250 seats

Links

The New School University Center

The New School University Center

When The New School projected its growth over the coming decades, it became clear that its enrollment would outpace its current facilities. The largest building project in The New School’s history, the 16-story University Center stands as a new landmark on the border of the Union Square and Greenwich Village neighborhoods. A truly multipurpose building, the Center includes a suite of design studios and laboratories, dormitories, wired classrooms, and a versatile auditorium seating up to 800.

With various configurations seating 600 to 800 patrons, the auditorium is used for everything from lectures to film screenings to drama to fashion shows. FDA designed a system of stage lifts and seating wagons, which create a convertible runway for fashion shows, or additional seating for performances. A sliding partition can divide the last eight rows from the rest of the auditorium; the seats in those rows are telescopic and retract to create two 75-student classrooms at the rear of the room. Using the wagons and lifts, the stage can extend for more movement-intensive performances.

New York Magazine’s Justin Davidson wrote that the building “brings the school’s brand of sensitive boldness to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 14th Street” and called it a “distinctly urban building, respectful but not obsequious.”

Project Details
  • Client: The New School
  • Architect: SOM – New York
  • Completion Year: 2014
  • Location: New York, New York
  • Acoustician: Shen Milsom & Wilke
  • Capacity: 800 seats

Links

Trinity School | Morse Theater

Trinity School | Morse Theater

Founded in 1709, the Trinity School serves grades K-12. The arts are fundamental to the Lower and Middle School programs, and Upper School students are required to devote at least three semesters to arts curricula.

A full-time professional staff member supervises technical theater, as well as set and lighting design.

The Trinity School’s Morse Theater is located on the top of a New York City Landmark structure — the Annex Building. Formerly known as the Parish House and designed in 1892 by William A. Potter, the top floor space was originally the parish refectory and later served a variety of functions for the Trinity School.

In 1983, the space was redesigned as the Morse Theater, providing an assembly space for the school and a dedicated theater for use by the theater department. After many years of serving the school, the space was ready to be refurbished and the technical systems had reached the end of their useful lives.

Everything had been painted black. Our work with Rogers Partners restores the architectural beauty of the room, including the exposed wooden roof trusses. A tension wire grid replaces narrow catwalks, providing safer and more flexible access — and is better suited to the look of the room. New telescopic seating for audience seating configurations provides additional comfort and better sightlines. New theatrical lighting and AV systems are able to accept, integrate, and incorporate new technologies when they become available to the Trinity School.

Project Details
  • Client: Trinity School
  • Architect: Rogers Partners
  • Completion Year: 2016
  • Location: New York, NY
  • Building Size: 180,000 s.f.
  • Capacity: 299 seats

Links

Privacy Settings
We use cookies to enhance your experience while using our website. If you are using our Services via a browser you can restrict, block or remove cookies through your web browser settings. We also use content and scripts from third parties that may use tracking technologies. You can selectively provide your consent below to allow such third party embeds. For complete information about the cookies we use, data we collect and how we process them, please check our Privacy Policy
Youtube
Consent to display content from - Youtube
Vimeo
Consent to display content from - Vimeo
Google Maps
Consent to display content from - Google
Save
error: Content is protected. Please reach out to rhackman@fda-online.com for any materials needed. Thank you