Location:Takoma Park, Maryland
Size:58,000 gsf
Cost:$22 million
This mixed-use facility provides both the college and the community a range of arts and theater spaces. The building circulation maximizes interactions among students and other users, and a dramatic roofscape and glass-walled street front make a real connection with the community. The effect is both to elevate the school's cultural offerings while contributing to the ongoing revitalization of Silver Spring, MD.
The Performing Arts Center also serves to bridge the eastern and western sections of the campus, unifying the overall master plan. Inside, a 500-seat theater for music and dance and a 125-seat performance studio for drama are complemented by classrooms, public zones and a glass-walled dance studio, visible to passersby.
The roofscape and extensive glazing intentionally make the facility more recognizable and visually accessible. A two-story "glass bar" provides urban scale and immediate identification of the arts center's amenities and function, lending excitement and drama to the streetscape. The larger theater's flexible design accommodates both traditional performances and artistic productions, such as music, dance and performance pieces. The massing of the building seeks to organize the west campus and the chaotic five-point street intersection.....more