Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre and the College of Fine Arts

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Sanjay Gangal
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Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre and the College of Fine Arts Production Center in Boston, Massachusetts by Elkus Manfredi Architects

March 19th, 2020 by Sanjay Gangal

Article source: Elkus Manfredi Architects

This multifunctional studio theatre with production and support spaces provides Boston University’s internationally acclaimed School of Theatre with a 21st-century learning environment for collaboration and experimentation. Collocated on BU’s Charles River Campus with the rest of the College of Fine Arts for the first time in decades, the theatre creates a new era of engagement for the University community, the Town of Brookline, and area residents. With its dramatically reflective façade framed by a delicate concrete scrim, the 75,000-square-foot theatre complex delights and instructs, giving architectural form to Hamlet’s injunction to the players “to hold, as ‘twere, the mirror up to nature.”

A dramatic presence on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston University’s Booth Theatre provides a 21st-century learning environment for collaboration and experimentation with its multifunctional studio theatre and production center. Hosting the newly collocated theatre arts program, the new center is enveloped in a first-of-its-kind pre-cast concrete scrim that evokes the frame of a proscenium theatre, while the lobby’s mirror-like 47-foot glass curtainwall cants forward 14 degrees, reflecting the city scene, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

Architects: Elkus Manfredi Architects
Project: Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre and the College of Fine Arts Production Center
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Photography: Robert Benson, Eric Laignel
Software used: AutoCAD, Sketchup, Revit, Adobe Creative Suite

The first new public open space in many years along BU’s linear Commonwealth Avenue campus, the theatre’s 25,450-square-foot plaza extends the theatre environment to sidewalk and street, creating a room for the campus community and the general public. Its design, based on the same 14-degree angle of the façade, draws in students and visitors alike, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

This Shakespeare quotation has long been a touchstone for BU’s School of Theatre and its message the power of reflection as social commentary and critique provided design inspiration for the Booth Theatre. Enveloped in a first-of-its-kind pre-cast concrete scrim that evokes the frame of a proscenium theatre, the lobby’s mirror-like 47-foot glass curtainwall cants forward 14 degrees to reflect passersby, metaphorically casting them on stage. Set on Commonwealth Avenue, the campus’s spine and a major city thoroughfare, the façade is a backdrop for life on its new street-edge arts plaza.

This reflective exterior contrasts with the wood-clad central volume of the flexible 273-seat studio theatre within. Layered around the triple-height volume of the theatre’s perimeter are the box office, classrooms, offices, a light/sound lab, and costume/prop studios.

The production center, the building’s second major programmatic component, is straightforward in plan, and its façade a composition of green and silver dichroic metal panels and ipê wood responds to the neighborhood’s scale. Within, the linearly arranged double-height scene shops allow large raw materials to enter via the loading dock, after which they are transformed in the fixed tool area, finished in the paint shop, and moved directly into the theatre.

With bold, sculptural signage, terraced steps that double as street-side seating, and theatrically-inspired linear lighting, the theatre’s plaza offers an urban campus space for casual meetings, rehearsals, and respite at the edge of the busy streetscape, Image Courtesy © Eric Laignel

Stepping up from its Commonwealth Avenue edge, the plaza features terraced layers of wood and stone that form an integrated area of pathways and seating areas, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

By the Numbers

75,000-square-foot theatre arts complex
25,450-square-foot urban plaza on Commonwealth Avenue extends theatre environment to sidewalk and street with an outdoor room that welcomes the public
A welcoming glass façade that reaches out toward the street with a 14-degree tilt
40-foot-high x 112’ long glass façade slanted at 14 degrees
The spectacular glass wall encloses the three story high lobby, at approximately 40’ in height. There is an additional story above, which brings the overall building height to 57 feet.
21,000-square-foot studio theatre with a 38.5-foot-high ceiling
Theatre seating capacity of 250
One motorized catwalk
Nine motorized truss grids and five motorized battens for lighting and scenery
Comprehensive theatrical lighting, audio and video systems
A flexible stage floor with a 42-foot x 36-foot trap area and trap room below
83 Ultra High Performance Concrete panels wrap the building’s exterior to create a proscenium-like building exoskeleton
1,600-pounds: weight of each UHPC panel
315-foot-long theatre production wing
286-foot-long production wing corridor
18-foot-high door connects scene shop and studio theatre
One sound and lighting lab with accessible catwalks and motorized battens
1,739-square-foot light well in the center of fourth level
3740-square-foot lobby; 37-foot lobby ceiling height
Two loading dock truck bays
A two-level subsurface parking garage containing 187 parking spaces and a reconfigured landscaped surface parking lot containing 103 spaces, for a total of 290 parking spaces.

An extension of the plaza, the lobby continues the theme of reflectivity that the canted building façade introduces. The glass- and metal-clad mezzanine overlooks the lobby’s ground level, creating another stage-like space that also allows patrons to be the audience for lobby life below, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

Like the façade, the lobby’s 37-foot acoustical ceiling also acts as a mirror, with a covering of reflective chrome-coated aluminum. In counterpoint, the granite floor grounds the light-filled space, while featuring embedded lighting strips in the same 14-degree angle as the façade, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

Now engraved in the black metal panels cladding the mezzanine’s façade, the School of Theatre’s touchstone quotation from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “To hold as ‘twere a mirror up to nature,” was inspirational for the architects. With the studio theatre’s 20-foot-wide doors open to the lobby, the Production Center is visible beyond, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

The building’s 83 ultra-high-performance concrete panels that form the curtain-like exterior scrim are the first ever manufactured at this delicate scale. At seven-feet wide by 14-feet high each, these panels wrap the glass curtainwall, while articulating the building’s 14-foot floor-to-ceiling heights, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

Concrete scrim floats over dichroic metal panels that exhibit different colors, depending on the lighting conditions. The building can seem alternatively green, grey, or blue—continually surprising the viewer, like the best theatre productions, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

In response to the residential neighborhood it faces, the Production Center’s southern side features green and silver dichroic metal panels, ipê wood siding and louvers, and windows of several scales. The quality and nuance of this chameleonic façade softens the wing’s volume and provides neighbors with visual interest and connection to the action within, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

Metal panels, window framing, and ipê wood siding create a play of light, pattern, and texture on the Production Center’s façade, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

The top floor’s studios and classrooms fill with daylight during the day, and become a beacon at night for the campus, Image Courtesy © Eric Laignel

An experimental laboratory for student productions, the multi-functional studio theatre features a 42-foot x 36-foot theatre trap, a sound and lighting room, a motorized catwalk, nine motorized trusses for lighting and scenery, and custom-designed acoustical walls that host rigging and scenery while protecting the acoustical woodwork’s finish, Image Courtesy © Eric Laignel

The Production Center’s three bays get progressively taller to accommodate set production—from 24 to 34 to 36 feet. Once assembled, a set can go across the corridor into the theatre through doors that are 18 feet tall, Image Courtesy © Eric Laignel

Featuring dramatic, theatre-inspired ceiling-height graphics, the production wing’s 286-foot-long, 36-foot-high, 12-foot-wide corridor directly connects the studio theatre to the three scene and painting shops, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

UHPC Panel Elevation, Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

Plan Detail at Angled Curtain Wall, Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

Section Detail at North Façade 4th Floor Outrigger, Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

North Elevation, Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

South Elevation, Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

West Elevation, Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

Model of the Core of the building plus the landscaped plaza, Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

In plan, the building’s two wings are straightforward: the theatre is ensconced in non-sound-sensitive support spaces to protect against street noise, while the production center is laid out like an assembly line with each of the shops arrayed in sequence. The saw-cut paving pattern of the arts plaza continues into the lobby, blending inside and out. On Dummer Street, the sidewalk was widened and additional vegetation was planted to better blend with the Cottage Farm neighborhood’s residential character, Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

The technical gallery accessed from this level allows students to utilize the theatre’s nine lighting trusses to their fullest extent. Two overlooks from the theatre-flanking corridors enable views into the lobby below. Various shops and storage rooms surround the theatre. In the southeast corner is the double-height light and sound lab. Essentially a mini theatre, it is a fantastic resource for student experimentation on a smaller scale, Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

East West Section, Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

: A dramatic presence on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston University’s Booth Theatre provides a 21st-century learning environment for collaboration and experimentation with its multifunctional studio theatre and production center. Hosting the newly collocated theatre arts program, the new center is enveloped in a first-of-its-kind pre-cast concrete scrim that evokes the frame of a proscenium theatre, while the lobby’s mirror-like 47-foot glass curtainwall cants forward 14 degrees, reflecting the city scene, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

: The first new public open space in many years along BU’s linear Commonwealth Avenue campus, the theatre’s 25,450-square-foot plaza extends the theatre environment to sidewalk and street, creating a room for the campus community and the general public. Its design, based on the same 14-degree angle of the façade, draws in students and visitors alike, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

: With bold, sculptural signage, terraced steps that double as street-side seating, and theatrically-inspired linear lighting, the theatre’s plaza offers an urban campus space for casual meetings, rehearsals, and respite at the edge of the busy streetscape, Image Courtesy © Eric Laignel

: Stepping up from its Commonwealth Avenue edge, the plaza features terraced layers of wood and stone that form an integrated area of pathways and seating areas, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

: An extension of the plaza, the lobby continues the theme of reflectivity that the canted building façade introduces. The glass- and metal-clad mezzanine overlooks the lobby’s ground level, creating another stage-like space that also allows patrons to be the audience for lobby life below, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

: Like the façade, the lobby’s 37-foot acoustical ceiling also acts as a mirror, with a covering of reflective chrome-coated aluminum. In counterpoint, the granite floor grounds the light-filled space, while featuring embedded lighting strips in the same 14-degree angle as the façade, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

: Now engraved in the black metal panels cladding the mezzanine’s façade, the School of Theatre’s touchstone quotation from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “To hold as ‘twere a mirror up to nature,” was inspirational for the architects. With the studio theatre’s 20-foot-wide doors open to the lobby, the Production Center is visible beyond, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

: The building’s 83 ultra-high-performance concrete panels that form the curtain-like exterior scrim are the first ever manufactured at this delicate scale. At seven-feet wide by 14-feet high each, these panels wrap the glass curtainwall, while articulating the building’s 14-foot floor-to-ceiling heights, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

: Concrete scrim floats over dichroic metal panels that exhibit different colors, depending on the lighting conditions. The building can seem alternatively green, grey, or blue—continually surprising the viewer, like the best theatre productions, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

: In response to the residential neighborhood it faces, the Production Center’s southern side features green and silver dichroic metal panels, ipê wood siding and louvers, and windows of several scales. The quality and nuance of this chameleonic façade softens the wing’s volume and provides neighbors with visual interest and connection to the action within, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

: Metal panels, window framing, and ipê wood siding create a play of light, pattern, and texture on the Production Center’s façade, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

: Two large fourth-floor studios overlook Commonwealth Avenue and can be used as separate classrooms or joined to form one large space, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

: The top floor’s studios and classrooms fill with daylight during the day, and become a beacon at night for the campus, Image Courtesy © Eric Laignel

: An experimental laboratory for student productions, the multi-functional studio theatre features a 42-foot x 36-foot theatre trap, a sound and lighting room, a motorized catwalk, nine motorized trusses for lighting and scenery, and custom-designed acoustical walls that host rigging and scenery while protecting the acoustical woodwork’s finish, Image Courtesy © Eric Laignel

: The third floor’s sound and light lab is equipped with a full recording studio and a green-screen filming wall. A double-floor-height space, it also serves as a second, smaller black box, Image Courtesy © Eric Laignel

: The production wing functions like a theatre arts’ assembly line, with the gamut of theatre set production moving from east to west. Beginning with materials arriving at the loading dock, the set construction process continues with raw materials moving from the storage bay to the carpentry shop, then to the paint shop, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

: The Production Center’s three bays get progressively taller to accommodate set production—from 24 to 34 to 36 feet. Once assembled, a set can go across the corridor into the theatre through doors that are 18 feet tall, Image Courtesy © Eric Laignel

: The theatre’s facilities include scenery, prop, and costume shops that are hands-on learning environments for students in the design and production program of BU’s School of Theatre, Image Courtesy © Eric Laignel

: Featuring dramatic, theatre-inspired ceiling-height graphics, the production wing’s 286-foot-long, 36-foot-high, 12-foot-wide corridor directly connects the studio theatre to the three scene and painting shops, Image Courtesy © Robert Benson

: In plan, the building’s two wings are straightforward: the theatre is ensconced in non-sound-sensitive support spaces to protect against street noise, while the production center is laid out like an assembly line with each of the shops arrayed in sequence. The saw-cut paving pattern of the arts plaza continues into the lobby, blending inside and out. On Dummer Street, the sidewalk was widened and additional vegetation was planted to better blend with the Cottage Farm neighborhood’s residential character, Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

: Site lines drive the vertical position of the theatre control room and the fully accessible mezzanine level, which is four feet lower than the rest of the second floor. The remainder of the level is devoted to dressing rooms and classrooms requiring quick access to the theatre. The main costume shop is sub dividable into two classrooms with the use of the operable folding partitions. The production crew lounge is tucked away in the quieter southwest corner, Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

: The technical gallery accessed from this level allows students to utilize the theatre’s nine lighting trusses to their fullest extent. Two overlooks from the theatre-flanking corridors enable views into the lobby below. Various shops and storage rooms surround the theatre. In the southeast corner is the double-height light and sound lab. Essentially a mini theatre, it is a fantastic resource for student experimentation on a smaller scale, Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

: The main studios and classrooms occupy level four. The graduate and undergraduate studios have a place of primacy above the lobby, animating the building well into the night. Faculty offices and additional classrooms are arranged around a central lightwell that admits daylight into the deep floor plate, Image Courtesy © Elkus Manfredi Architects

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Tags: Boston, Massachusetts

Categories: Art Center, Autocad, Performing Arts Center, Revit, School, SketchUp, Theater, University, University Building

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