Illinois State University, Performing Arts Center
Normal, IllinoisPerformance is a key element in the academic mission of the theater and music programs on this campus. This new Art Center is designed with frugality, efficiency, and simplicity to support that mission. - AIA Minnesota Awards Jury
In an age when new university performance buildings for the arts are located on the edges of campuses as a gesture toward community, this Art Center is located in the heart of a 12,000 student campus on the last available site of its main academic quad. Focusing on faculty, student performances and the occasional guest artist, this new Art Center solves long-term problems of quality and appropriate sized spaces for the College of Fine Arts.
The uncomplicated program for this Art Center consists of three primary spaces; a 450-seat proscenium theater, a 1000-seat concert hall, and a shared lobby galleria. The Art Center is primarily attached to the existing theater spaces and secondarily to the existing fine arts complex via a new service entrance. The lobby serves as a beacon to the University, a stage for campus events, and a billboard for the arts activities. The lobby allows the audience to enter each performance space on two levels and masks the massing differences of the two large boxes.
Emphasis on quietness demanded physical separation of environmental systems, eliminating their intrusion on the performance experience. To achieve that separation the fan gallery is located under the lobby and isolated from each of the audience spaces. A vertical shaft lines the length of the inner lobby wall for distribution of air and as an isolator of lobby noise.
The nationally recognized drama program has a twofold belief, that the theater experience should focus on the performance, and that their mission is to train and educate future artists. Consequently, the design emphasis was placed on capability, versatility, and intimacy.
related quote
"The architects used every opportunity they had to their best advantage. Every last dollar sings on this project."