Theatre for a New Audience

The 27,500-square-foot structure houses a 299-seat theater with an adjustable stage and seating. The 35-foot-tall mainstage has tiers of seating along three sides. The building’s grand architectural gesture is its cantilevered facade, which allows the front lobby to hover above the plaza below. The entire section of structure, including massive panes of glass, hangs from a pair of cantilevered steel trusses hidden in the building’s side walls. The project has a LEED Silver certification goal.

The theatre building is located on a noisy downtown site near underground subway lines. To address the stringent acoustic and vibration criteria for the space, the front two-thirds of the structure is separated from the foundation by rubber vibration isolators. Although not a unique solution, the design and installation of the isolators was especially unusual. The pile-supported mat slab for the structure was created, then the isolators were placed, and finally a second structural slab spanning only on the isolators was “floated” just above the mat slab. To achieve a horizontal gap between the mat foundation slab and the acoustically-isolated lobby slab above, sand was vacuumed out from the void between the two.

TYLin also designed the foundation to comply with NYC Transit Authority requirements for structures within the subway influence zone.

Image credit (interior photos): Courtesy of H3 Architecture