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Center for the Arts features latest technology
Click here for photo album 3:48 p.m., June 14, 2006--When UD's new Center for the Arts opens this fall, it will showcase several new performance and practice venues equipped with the latest technology to make attending an event a most rewarding experience. The 91,000-square-foot education and performance facility will house a 450-seat proscenium theatre, a theatre rehearsal room, a 200-seat recital hall and an orchestra hall, as well as 32 individual music practice rooms. Ayers/Saint/Gross is the architect, and Whiting-Turner is the construction manager for the $48 million project. “Each space has a different design and function,” Steve Ruble, UD project manager in facilities planning and construction and project coordinator for the Center for the Arts construction, said. “The acoustics are the primary consideration, and everything in the building is designed around this need.” The 5,000-square-foot orchestra hall is designed for multiple uses, including meetings, catered events and as a rehearsal space for the 300-plus-member UD Marching Band. Heidi Sarver, UD Marching Band director, said that it is not just the orchestra hall's size that makes it such an attractive practice and performance space.
Among the many performance-enhancing design features of the room are a curved ceiling to help disperse sound, as well as battered (angled) walls that direct sound upwards, acoustic draperies and the use of heavy materials to absorb sound. The structure rests on a floating neoprene pad and uses acoustic isolating joints to keep the music in the room and to provide an effective barrier to outside noises. “We will be able to have an acoustically appropriate space for sit-down music rehearsals,” Sarver said. “The Marching Band goes inside during bad weather, as well as when we are learning new music for a new production.” The inclusion of an audio/video playback system in the space also means the UD Marching Band will be able to review its performances on a weekly basis, Sarver said. “This is something we have not been able to do since the band size exceeded 200 members. The educational value of this is without measure.” The state-of-the art sound system and acoustics also will be a plus for future UD Marching Band recording efforts, Sarver said. “We released our first CD a couple of years ago, and there is a second CD in production right now,” Sarver said. “The new space will allow us to separate musical selections for more clarity on future recordings through the use of additional microphones.” The new facility also will include easy access to instrument storage space, Sarver said.
Also featured in the Center for the Arts are 32 student practice rooms, plus a student lounge with wireless computing capability. “We will also be able to utilize the larger ensemble practice rooms on the second floor as well as the new recital hall,” Sarver said. “This entire new space will be put to excellent use by the Marching Band.” James Prodan, chairperson of the Department of Music, said that the new practice rooms and performance spaces will be welcomed by students currently practicing in the Amy E. du Pont Music Building. “The practice rooms have been needed very badly,” Prodan said. “The sizes of the practice rooms are appropriately varied for different needs. Sound will not get from room to room, which is important for practice concentration.” Student, faculty and guest performers who use the 670-square-foot stage of the new recital hall can play for as many as 200 patrons in its 2,400-square-foot seating area. The recital hall is served by a sound room equipped with a full rack of state-of-the-art sound and video equipment, including a projector, microphones and power connections for audio setup, and like the other performance and practice spaces in the building, the recital hall maintains its separate acoustic integrity.
“Just having the practice and performance spaces is very special,” Prodan said. “The addition of the Center for the Arts will raise the profile and quality of our student body.” Serving the heating and air conditioning needs of the Center for the Arts is a specially designed series of HVAC units, each handling a separate performance space. The lobby, which serves the recital hall and the proscenium theatre, is capped with three glass domes topped with light monitors. Through a series of speakers and monitors, the lobby affords patrons an audio/visual connection to events taking place in the performance spaces. Also featured in the lobby is a décor that includes carpeted and hardwood floor surfaces, as well as a concessions area. The 450-seat proscenium theatre in the Center for the Arts should prove to be a hit with theatergoers, as well as serving the needs of faculty and students in UD's Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP). In addition to a 4,700-square-foot seating area, the proscenium theatre features a 3,100-square-foot stage area that vertically extends 70 feet from stage floor to roof. Also included immediately behind the stage are dressing and makeup rooms. “PTTP has desperately needed an additional performing space since its inception at UD, and the new theatre in the Center for the Arts can definitely provide that,” Sanford Robbins, chairperson of UD's Department of Theatre, said.
Among the first productions planned for the new theatre this fall are Peter Pan and Cyrano de Bergerac. “There are many plays that require scenery to fly in, or a high staircase, neither of which are possible without a rigging system,” Article by Jerry Rhodes
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