El Museo del Barrio, El Teatro
This unique multipurpose theatre was originally designed to be a children’s theatre. That legacy can still be seen today through its series of hand-painted wall murals depicting popular scenes from children’s literature. Through the years, it’s also hosted Broadway and off-Broadway productions, a Shakespeare festival, and parts of the 39th Annual GRAMMY awards. Today, it’s part of the New York City’s Historic Music Trail and forms part of El Museo del Barrio— the country’s oldest museum devoted to Latino art—offering a welcoming environment to complement their exhibitions, bilingual education activities, and public programs.
The auditorium plays an important role in the life of the museum and its community, hosting a variety of programming from lectures and screenings to community gatherings and theatrical performances. We upgraded its support spaces and equipment systems to enhance the user experience and bring its performance technology up to date, including adding a new orchestra pit lift for performances with live music and improving the audiovisual systems to make sure the room could cope with the modern-day technological requirements for lectures and screenings. The refurbishment also saw the theatre's fairytale-themed wall murals and decorative plasterwork lovingly restored to their original glory. The renewed theatre is ready to serve and inspire its community again!
Virginia Tech, Moss Arts Center
2013
North America
A mix of adaptive reuse and new construction, this LEED Gold-certified, 147,000 square foot arts center features a versatile 1,260-seat multipurpose auditorium, art galleries, TV studio, offices, and the Collaborative Performance Lab, also known as The Cube—an incredibly robust multidisciplinary space. With a full complement of support spaces including scene shop, dressing rooms, and green room, the center offers ample opportunity and artistic freedom. Understanding Virginia Tech’s need for versatile arts spaces, we led the design direction toward highly adaptable venues. With two orchestra pits, a full fly tower, 80 line sets, and adjustable proscenium, the multipurpose theatre is ideal for everything from soloists and spoken word to full orchestras and amplified music. In The Cube, we created a flexible home for the university’s interdisciplinary ICAT program—essentially a blank canvas hung on a robust infrastructure—capable of receiving and supporting anything imaginable.
City Tech Academic Complex
2019
North America
This 365,000 square foot multipurpose academic building will serve as a new campus gateway for City Tech—one of the largest universities in New York, with more than 14,000 students in 63 programs. The eight-story academic center features training labs, classrooms, administrative offices, an 800-seat gymnasium, and a 1,000-seat multipurpose theatre. The versatile space serves as a college-wide lecture hall as well as a fully functional drama and dance theatre. The room is equipped with an adjustable proscenium, modular stage floor, and extensive AV infrastructure. Theatre Projects designed the theatre equipment and AV systems to be both highly functional and student-friendly, providing a valuable resource to train student technicians planning to work in theatre professionally.
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
2011
North America
Both an icon for Kansas City and the architectural world. The 285,000 square foot center includes a theatre for opera, musical, and dance productions, and a symphonic concert hall. Theatre Projects was involved with the facility’s design from the earliest stages, helping divert the project direction away from one large multipurpose hall toward the creation of two world-class venues. The two halls are extremely intimate for both audience and performers and they share an extraordinarily robust collection of support spaces which run the length of the building.
