PROJECT DETAILS
LOCATION : Alma, Michigan
MARKET : Cultural
AREA :
Alma College
Located at the entrance to campus, the Heritage Performing Arts Center is a signature building for Alma College. The administration wanted a facility which would be compatible with the other buildings on campus. The Performing Arts Center was therefore designed as a foreground building that respects its context.
The building's exterior uses design elements from the existing campus while introducing distinctive central arches and unifying banding to highlight the significant nature and prominent location of the structure. The three main components of this multipurpose Performing Arts Center - a 500 seat concert hall, a 250 seat flexible theater, and a dance studio – are clearly articulated as independent volumes, and are united by loggias and a unifying vocabulary of masonry and cast stone.
Its spacious lobby and multi-use dance studio allow for large public gatherings and exhibitions of all kinds. This facility is developed as a group of independently articulated theaters and pavilions which are merged into a coherent whole. This design encourages interaction between theater, dance, and music groups.
