Cultural Centers: Music, Theater, Dance, and Visual Arts FACILITIES

Through an examination of key design issues and opportunities, this chapter explores
how the design of arts centers can foster innovation and generate powerful community
connections.
Three Scales: A Framework for
Designing Centers for the Arts
With an eye on the growing importance and
changing roles of arts facilities on campuses
nationwide, this chapter explores fundamental ideas concerning the design of centers for
music, theater, dance, and the visual arts at
colleges and universities. These ideas are organized around a framework of three major
scales that guide the design process: the campus scale; the building scale; and, finally, the
room scale.
1. Campus scalecreating connections. As a
building for both the campus community
and the public, as well as a place for both
education and performance, a center for
the arts holds significant potential for
creating campus connections. A focus on
managing the size and scale of the building as it relates to its site and to the
broader campus is key. Careful consideration should be given to the transparency
and openness of the arts center, as well as
to the location of entrances and landscaped spaces, in order to establish the
building as a hub of activity. If it successfully connects to the broader campus in a
way that fosters both prominence in the
landscape and chance encounters, a center for the arts will expose students from
all disciplines to the arts while fostering
individual creativity and engaging the
public.
2. Building scaleinterdisciplinary activity.
At the scale of building organization,
the design focus turns to promoting interaction among the various activities
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taking place within the building. The

layout of classrooms, rehearsal spaces,
galleries, performance venues, and offices shapes how students, faculty, and visitors experience the arts. The building
organization offers opportunities for
creating community while encouraging
individual study, generating a sense of
openness and creative freedom that fosters risk taking. For example, connecting different types of spaces (such as
front of house and back of house) can
foster collaboration and add to the intensity of the creative spirit of the arts
center.
3. Room scaleflexibility and innovation.
Viewed at the room scale, the design of
an arts center should consider the wide
range of room typesfrom performance
spaces and galleries, to rehearsal and
practice spaces, to studios and laboratories. Each room type entails a different
set of design priorities and challenges as
well as technological issues. This chapter
explores how these ideas apply to theaters, rooms for music, rooms for dance,
and spaces for visual arts.
Campus Scale
Centers for the arts tend to be large, inwardly focused buildings. Program sizes are on
the range of 60,000200,000 sq ft, with
many tallvolume spaces that amplify the
bulk of the buildings alreadylarge floor area
(see Figure 10.1).
Tallvolume spaces include 5060 ft tall
concert halls, theaters with 7590 ft tall fly
towers and 4050 ft tall audience chambers,
40 ft high music rehearsal spaces, and a
range of other double or tripleheight spaces such as dance studios, rehearsal spaces, art
galleries, art studios, scene shops, and loading docks. Many of these spaces have traditionally not included windows, leading to