For Immediate Release: August 20, 2007
HGA's Award-Winning Addition to Benedicta Arts Center Honors the Iconic Building While Introducing 21st Century Transparency, Daylight and Connectivity
St. Joseph, MN - Building on the iconic stature and award-winning design of the 1964 Benedicta Arts Center (BAC) at the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota, Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, Inc., designed an addition that honors the existing structure while asserting its independence. Utilizing similar massing, forms and materials, the 28,000-square-foot addition respects the rich history of the original, square, brick BAC-a modernist interpretation of monastic architectural traditions with intimate corridors that open dramatically into the high-ceilinged theater.
The addition also speaks to 21st-century needs for openness and connection through more delicate detailing and lighter materials, daylight-filled rooms and corridors, and a transparency that orients the arts activities within the addition outward to the larger campus. As a result, HGA received a 2006 Honor Award for architectural excellence from the American Institute of Architects' Minnesota chapter.
"The addition has the same DNA as the existing modernist building, but it's also different," said the Honor Award jurors (Ann Beha, FAIA, Ann Beha Architects, Inc.; Pierre Thibault, RAIC, Pierre Thibault Architecte; Michael McInturf, Michael McInturf Architects). "The design is simple but very efficient. We loved the sculptural finishes of the exterior and the interiors are equally high quality."
The addition provides much-needed rehearsal space and performance venues that meet the growing demands of the college's Fine Arts Programming and its burgeoning enrollment in theater, music and dance. At the same time, the strength of the expansion's rigorous, clean design gives the BAC a more dramatic presence as the gateway building to the campus, better defines the built environment of the mall which connects the stand-alone BAC to the rest of campus, and provides a more visible and compelling presence for the arts.
Architecture for the Arts. In 1964, the Benedicta Arts Center opened at the College of Saint Benedict. The BAC was located at the edge of a cornfield; the fine-arts department had six faculty members; and the campus was home to approximately 400 students. The low-slung, box-shaped BAC, constructed with red-brown bricks and walls that enclose courtyards, was a modernist tribute to monastic traditions in architecture. The BAC's 1,078-seat Petters Auditorium became a tremendous draw for regional and national fine-art performances, while the classrooms and rehearsal spaces supported the formation of a regional arts-education program.
Today, the women's college serves 4,000 students (including men from its sibling school, Saint John's University, in nearby Collegeville) and employs almost 50 arts instructors. Science buildings, dormitories, parking lots, a library and a new dining hall occupy the cornfield. The original BAC remains a revered building, and focal point of the campus, for its austere modernist design, which was inspired by the architectural implications of The Rule of St. Benedict and provides a restrained background to the emotionally charged performing arts.
But the building's opaque monastic walls hid activity and the identity of programs within. More space was needed to accommodate the competing needs of the various performing-arts departments, and the Petters Auditorium was in need of new sound and lighting technologies, seating and overall updating. Thus a primary charge of the design team was to compliment the existing BAC with the architecture of the expansion. Now, BAC has 173,000 square feet of creative space that includes:
HGA worked with theatrical consultants Shuler and Shook as well as acoustical consultants Acoustic Dimensions. In addition, the HGA team assisted in renovations and accessibility improvements for BAC public spaces, new sound and lighting systems for Petters Auditorium, and updated air-conditioning systems throughout the building.
Architecture for Connection and Continuity. The addition is a composition of simple rectangular volumes in an L-shape that compliments the original architecture, and creates a circulation loop between the two buildings that seamlessly connects old and new. HGA also oriented the addition along an east/west axis, with the majority of glazing facing either south or north, to maximize daylight entering the building while limiting heat gain.
HGA created harmony between the addition and the existing building by partially submerging the addition's two-story volumes below grade. The black-box theater (with adjacent amphitheater) and its lobby are located on the lower level near theater support space, and with clear access to existing loading docks via stage lifts. The music-rehearsal space, small-ensemble rehearsal space, faculty studios and ensemble library are also located on the lower level. Because more than half the addition's program is located below grade, the building's heating and cooling loads have been greatly reduced, resulting in decreased energy costs for the college. Also, the entire building has a new, more energy-efficient HVAC system in that it draws on the excess capacity of the campus systems.
On the addition's main level, an elevated walkway extends along south-facing windows that allow light to reach offices and classrooms on the lower level. The new dance studio features a floor-to-ceiling window wall on one side that connects the rehearsing dancers with passers-by on the campus mall. Curtains can be open or closed to adjust the room's acoustical qualities. HGA designed the addition's three primary volumes (black-box theater/rehearsal space, music-rehearsal room, and dance studio) to be distinct and acoustically separated, so sound is contained within those volumes and a problem with the original building-sound leaking from various spaces into adjacent rooms-has been eliminated. The design also allows for simultaneous programming.
HGA also renovated the BAC's formerly cramped lobby space to, in conjunction with the two-story circulation space, connect the main entry with the BAC's existing classroom wing. This lobby also provides views to the campus, the architecture of the existing BAC, and to a newly formed courtyard, which will include plantings, benches, water features and places for performance. Throughout the addition, light-oak patterning on the ceilings, white walls, and an extensive use of glass and daylighting give a lighter feel that respectfully contrasts with the original BAC's darker, heavier aesthetic.
HGA was also challenged with ensuring a seamless connection between the exteriors of the two buildings. The original BAC is clad in vertically stacked bricks sporting variegated shades from yellow to dark rust to brown. But the kiln that had produced the original bricks was long out of business, and HGA couldn't find a perfect match elsewhere for the addition. So HGA created a solution: proportionally sized, aluminum panels anodized in four shades of bronze, then anodized again in red. The result is four different shades of a velvety-bronze color that mimic the darkest, reddish tones of original bricks, and shift with changes in light and movement. The panels, which are recyclable, were also "stacked" vertically like the original bricks. Other box-like forms, such as the dance studio, are partially clad in white gypsum-stucco that contrasts brightly with the aluminum panels.
Since HGA's award-winning addition to the BAC was completed, its light-filled spaces have become a magnet for student activity and student-faculty interaction, while increasingly the quality of life for the BAC's growing body of fine-arts students. Moreover, the sensitivity HGA demonstrated in designing an addition that complements the original, iconic structure-a design consideration of utmost important to the college-has resulted in a performing-arts facility perfectly suited to a Benedictine campus engaged in the arts, student life and 21st-century performance.
:: View College of Saint Benedict Benedicta Arts Center Expansion
HGA Contact: Julie Luers (612) 758-4000 e-mail JLuers@hga.com
Media Contact: Susan Evans, Evans Larson (612) 338-6999 e-mail susan@evanslarson.com