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importance of video and media as basic to the training of performers
and technicians. “The focus on training for performance
for the camera has become very popular, especially on community
college campuses which are more likely to offer technical
training leading to work in the field that is practical and less
theoretical.”
Landry & Bogan
Landry & Bogan work with plenty of high schools, but a
recent client had a request that is rare: They wanted a thrust
stage.
“The level of sophistication of Bellarmine College Prep in San
Jose made this 450-seat project unusual,” says Rose Steele, who
along with Heather McAvoy, owns Landry & Bogan. Bellarmine
has a strong drama department run by three full-time theatre
faculty members. Steele commended them on their bravado to
not only go with a thrust, but fully equip it: it has a stage lift, two
vomitoriums, a fully-rigged stage with 36 manually-operated
line sets and two dimmer banks with 192 circuits each. They also
put in a scene shop.
“Because they have a strong performing arts program, we
had a lot of input from the faculty with regard to their programming
needs,” Steele says. The project took three years to complete
at a project cost of $30 million. (The new 52,000-square
foot building includes a music room and art studies.) Despite
the financial support, cost was an issue as the architects weren’t
always clear on numbers for a theatre. “They have a handle on
costs and what is available in the market in general, but they
don’t usually know how much per square foot a theatre like this
can cost.”
Steele adds that while sometimes a project like this can
get “dumbed down” in the process, that didn’t happen here.
The team was focused on making the space work to its utmost
capacity.
Trends. “The trend is for better spaces for theatres,
period,” Steele says. “There’s more buy-in at the district level for a
really good space as opposed to the ‘gymatorium.’” Many of the
California’s universities require a year of performing or visual arts
to be accepted into the college, helping fuel the recent upsurge
in new/redone theatres there.
Jerit/Boys Inc.
Teddy Boys, vice president and principal consultant for Jerit/
Boys, began his career as an acoustics consultant and co-founded
the consulting firm in 1978 with Ron Jerit. For the Dakota
Middle School in Rapid City, S.D., they are turning a middle
school into a combination Community Performing Arts Center
and alternative high school.
“It’s this wonderful big, stone building,” he says. He’s especially
pleased that the community has this approach as opposed
to a complete teardown. “I love the idea that the building is
going to be saved for the arts.” The school district is leading the
project, but it’s being done in partnership with several local arts
orgs, including community theatres and music groups like the
local symphony, who spent 15 years raising $4 million.
“The town already has a road house at the convention center,
so there’s no reason to have a 1,400 seat auditorium. This is
probably the first time I haven’t done a seat-count driven project,
so they’ll be getting wider seats and rows.”
A three-sided balcony will be lightly refurbished but mostly
left alone. “It’ll look a whole lot like what went up in the 1920s,
but solve a lot of modern theatre issues.” They won’t be able to
expand the stage but are are expanding the apron and orchestra
lift and installing a pipe grid and brand new lighting and sound
systems.
He adds that the key to a project like this is having a good
first meeting. “We always ask what they are doing right now and
what they want to be doing in 10 years,” Boys says. “You have to
have a really great series of conversations, and develop the spirit
of the project. The facts you can find anywhere. So many projections
start out with the solution, and the not the questions.”
Westlake Reed Leskosky
In May, the Kohl Building at the Oberlin College Conservatory
of Music opened in Oberlin, Ohio, to rave reviews. Home of the
college’s programs in jazz, music history and theory, the building
includes spaces for teaching, practicing and recording.
“The building includes a ground level plaza which is one of
the most actively used spaces now on campus, as well as a rooftop
terrace designed to host concerts,” says Paul Westlake, part
of the design team for the project at Westlake Reed Leskosky.
“The third floor includes a bridge to the other Conservatory
buildings; this bridge contains the sky lounge which is a social
gathering space with great views of the campus.”
In addition to all of that, the building is a LEED Gold music
facility. “It uses a geothermal heating system that is energy
efficient, but also minimizes the use of ductwork for space conditioning.”
Deemed contemporary in style and a big draw for the
school’s jazz program, the $24 million building is dazzling
36 August 2010 • www.stage-directions.com