School of Performing Arts, University of Central
Florida, Orlando, Fla.
The 75,000-square-foot School of Performing Arts completes the first of a two-phase Performing Arts Master Plan commissioned by the University of Central Florida. It will accommodate the school’s expanding cultural curriculum, while also strengthening the visual and physical links between the institution and the surrounding city of Orlando.
The master planning strategy unites the original ordering principle-a series of concentric rings radiating outward from a central cluster of native trees known as the “cypress dome”-with a new campus gateway along a newly defined axis of public spaces. It creates a unified face for the community while maintaining the individual identity of the academic departments. Completed, the 250,000-square-foot complex will include four performance venues-a 650-seat Concert Hall, 550-seat Proscenium Theater, 225-seat Lecture/Recital Hall, and a 200-seat Black Box Theater-and two academic wings for the Music and Theater Departments.
Completed for the Fall 2010 semester, the Phase One academic buildings house large dance and acting studios, rehearsal spaces for orchestra and chorus, individual practice rooms and faculty offices. Two main challenges were faced-providing the technically specific acoustic proportions and separation for the teaching and rehearsal rooms while maintaining a responsive aesthetic for future phase construction. Courtyard façades were considered “finished” edges, while surrounding exterior façades, pending addition of Phase II programs, were considered “temporal” edges.
Similar to music or dance notation, the “finished” façades express the program zones in massing and material-brick, zinc and insulated metal panels. Each is detailed to note the quirky syncopation of the individual rooms behind-a concept of architectural notation. The project features 18,081 square feet of single-skin zinc vertical reveal panels in Preweathered Blue Gray from RHEINZINK America Inc., and 8,707 square feet of Formawall Horizontal Flat 2-inch metal panels from CENTRIA in Bone White.
Owner: University of Central Florida
General contractor: Balfour Beatty Construction, Orlando
Design architect: Duda/Paine Architects LLP, Durham, N.C.
Architect of record: HKS Architects Inc., Orlando
Zinc panel fabricator: MetalTech-USA, Peachtree City, Ga.
Metal panel installer: Cladding Systems Inc., Tampa, Fla.
Metal wall panels: CENTRIA, Moon Township, Pa., www.centria.com, Circle #65, and RHEINZINK America Inc., Woburn, Mass., www.rheinzink.com, Circle #66
