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Cultural Centers: MusiC, theater, DanCe, anD Visual arts FaCilities

Through an examination of key design is-sues and opportunities, this chapter explores how the design of arts centers can foster in-novation and generate powerful community connections.

three Scales: a Framework for designing Centers for the artsWith an eye on the growing importance and changing roles of arts facilities on campuses nationwide, this chapter explores fundamen-tal ideas concerning the design of centers for music, theater, dance, and the visual arts at colleges and universities. These ideas are or-ganized around a framework of three major scales that guide the design process: the cam-pus scale; the building scale; and, finally, the room scale.

1. Campus scale—creating 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 build-ing as it relates to its site and to the broader campus is key. Careful consider-ation should be given to the transparency and openness of the arts center, as well as to the location of entrances and land-scaped spaces, in order to establish the building as a hub of activity. If it success-fully connects to the broader campus in a way that fosters both prominence in the landscape and chance encounters, a cen-ter for the arts will expose students from all disciplines to the arts while fostering individual creativity and engaging the public.

2. Building scale—interdisciplinary activity. At the scale of building organization, the design focus turns to promoting in-teraction among the various activities

taking place within the building. The layout of classrooms, rehearsal spaces, galleries, performance venues, and offic-es shapes how students, faculty, and vis-itors experience the arts. The building organization offers opportunities for creating community while encouraging individual study, generating a sense of openness and creative freedom that fos-ters risk taking. For example, connect-ing different types of spaces (such as front of house and back of house) can foster collaboration and add to the in-tensity of the creative spirit of the arts center.

3. Room scale—flexibility and innovation. Viewed at the room scale, the design of an arts center should consider the wide range of room types—from performance spaces and galleries, to rehearsal and practice spaces, to studios and laborato-ries. 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 the-aters, rooms for music, rooms for dance, and spaces for visual arts.

CampuS SCaleCenters for the arts tend to be large, inward-ly focused buildings. Program sizes are on the range of 60,000–200,000 sq ft, with many tall‐volume spaces that amplify the bulk of the building’s already‐large floor area (see Figure 10.1).

Tall‐volume spaces include 50–60 ft tall concert halls, theaters with 75–90 ft tall fly towers and 40–50 ft tall audience chambers, 40 ft high music rehearsal spaces, and a range of other double‐ or triple‐height spac-es such as dance studios, rehearsal spaces, art galleries, art studios, scene shops, and load-ing docks. Many of these spaces have tradi-tionally not included windows, leading to