The new Performing Arts Center is an exciting and notable theatrical destination for students, staff, parents, and neighboring communities of Sage Creek High School. The 16,500 SF facility houses an array of programs, including Choir and Instrumental Music, Musical Theatre, Drama and Dance, and supports lectures and concerts by visiting artists.
The curved façade was designed to create a gentle transition to the campus entrance without encroaching or reducing the open space in the plaza. The design also creates a more welcoming and inviting entrance experience as the Performing Arts Center becomes both a gateway to the campus and a destination point for evening events.
Presenting a striking modern aesthetic, perforated metal panels on the entry façade are suspended in front of a structural glazed curtain wall to control the amount of sunlight cascading into the building. The screens also offer a unique opportunity to provide large-scale projected signage for event advertising, as well as school identification.
One enters the Center to a spacious two-story Lobby designed to allow ample room for queuing into the Audience Chamber. The Lobby wall follows the shape of the exterior façade, an approach that was determined to be more honest – as form follows function. The space can accommodate groups of more than 200 people for pre- or post-performance gatherings. Also accessible from the lobby is a Black Box / Multi-Purpose room separated from the Audience Chamber by a double wall and corridor to reduce the possibility of noise transfer.
At ground-level, the Audience Chamber is entered via light-and sound-lock vestibules at either end of the Lobby, providing convenient entrée to Orchestra and Parterre seating. The Audience Chamber is designed to seat 340-plus occupants with consideration given to sight lines and acoustics that allow an intimate experience, thereby improving student attentiveness.
