Architectural Fact Sheet

Project Description
An 800-seat theatre occupying the first five and one-half floors of an 11-story office tower. A three-level glass façade curtain wall is distinguished by a projected bay window, connecting the activity within to the surrounding urban street life. The new facility, along with The Shakespeare Theatre's existing home-the Lansburgh Theatre-will constitute the Harman Center for the Arts. The new theatre, designed to address The Shakespeare Theatre's expanded programming mission, will allow for a wide variety of staging configurations-proscenium, thrust, semi-arena or bare-as well as for the presentation of dance and music events. Acoustically, the space has been rendered for the spoken word, and also can be easily adapted for chamber music as well as live, amplified or recorded music.

 

Location
610 F Street NW - between Sixth and Seventh Streets in downtown Washington, D.C. (one hundred yards from the Lansburgh Theatre, which is located at 450 7th Street NW)

Leadership
Michael Kahn, Artistic Director
Landon V. Butler, Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Design Architect
Jack Diamond
Diamond and Schmitt Architects Incorporated
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Groundbreaking Spring 2004

Opening Early 2007

Size
Building Footprint 18,000 sf
Public Space 24,000 sf
Non-public Space 43,000 sf

Principal Materials
Exterior: precast concrete, glass and metal spandrel panel. Interior: Venetian plaster "envelope" for the theatre enclosure. Glass stair and balustrade in theatre lobbies, with wood panels and screens in the theatre.

Scheme
Set within a new office tower, the theatre's footprint is aligned perpendicular to F Street and allows for maximum street exposure. The street-level lobby entrance allows for a direct connection to the street life. The glass façade and bay window establish the building's identity and purpose and directly link the activity within the public lobby areas with the vibrant surrounding urban environment.

PRINCIPAL DESIGN FEATURES

Building Façade
A five-story glass façade features an eight-foot projected "bay window" extending outward, acting like a screen or theatrical scrim, hanging over the F Street sidewalk below. Through the extended window bay, the activity of the theatre lobbies is visible to the street below.

Marquee
The eight-foot window bay projection inherently creates a sheltered entrance to the street-level lobby. Just under the projection, is an animated marquee that will have the capacity to project changing images and information regarding current and future events.

Lobby Levels
The street-level entrance lobby consists of the theatre's box office, gift shop and public rest rooms, accessible during normal business hours. The orchestra lobby level is extended to meet the glass façade "bay window." The balcony lobby level is cut short of the façade and becomes a mezzanine that looks down to the orchestra lobby below, visually connecting the audiences on both levels.

Acoustical
Separation A series of "suspended bridges" connects the lobby areas to the performance areas. This separation completely isolates the performance area from the rest of the building. The interior theatre space floats on large rubber pads that absorb ground-borne noise vibration from underground services and nearby subway traffic, protecting the acoustical integrity of the performance environment.

Staging Configuration(s)
The seamless marriage between advance technology and a variety of elementary stage configurations-proscenium, thrust or semi-arena-renders a totally flexible space. Simple technically advanced stagecraft include: a retractable proscenium that can fold up like a Venetian blind for storage in the fly space; a series of seating units on movable wagons for three-quarter or "in-the-round" viewing; a stage floor extension over a small lowered pit to create a thrust stage; and a series of movable acoustical wall panels, arranged in a semi-circle in front of the proscenium, which renders an environment for chamber music or solo recital concerts.

Performance Colonnade
The interior performance area is defined on three sides by a two-level colonnade. Elements of the colonnade structure, such as columns and guard panels, are removable for flexibility to incorporate stage sets. The second-level colonnade connects directly to the audience balcony, allowing for multiple exits and entrances from the audience to the performance area.

Interior Acoustical Treatment
Set in between the support pilasters of the performance and audience areas is a series of panels or screens constructed of woods strips that differ in width and depth to create diffusion, spreading the sound. Automatically adjustable absorbent curtains, capable of being programmed at various levels depending on the acoustical need, are set behind these wood strip panels and are masked from the spectator's view.

Suspended over the performance/audience space is a catwalk for lighting instruments. Set within the rectangular catwalk are adjustable acoustical panels that, like the acoustical curtains, are fully adjustable.

Balcony guard panels on either side of the stage are adjustable to tip forward in the thrust stage set-up. This modification will improve unamplified speech clarity in this configuration.

Administrative Offices & Support Spaces
Offices are provided for the production director(s) and for front and back of house staff. In addition to ample-sized dressing rooms, the below-grade level also includes a rehearsal and green room and a small kitchen.

Breakdown of Principal Areas
Lobby 3,300 sf
Theatre 7,510 sf
Administration 1,210 sf

Below grade facilities
Dressing Rooms 1,970 sf
Green Room 525 sf
Rehearsal Hall 2,020 sf
Kitchen 420 sf
Storage 1,395 sf

Sidney Harman Theatre

Design Team, Diamond and Schmitt Architects
Jack Diamond, Principal
Gary McCluskie, Principal
Jennifer Mallard, Project Architect

Theatre Design
Fisher Dachs Associates

Acoustical Design
The Talaske Group, Inc.

Mechanical Engineers
Crossey Engineering Limited International Inc.

Electrical Engineers
Mulvey & Banani International Inc.

Project Manager
J.M. Zell Partners, Ltd.

Office Tower

Architect
SmithGroup Inc.
Colden (Coke) Florence

Project Developer
CarrAmerica Urban Development
Robert Carr, President

Construction Manager
Clark Construction

Structural Engineer
Tadjer Cohen Edelson Associates, Inc.

Mechanical Engineers
Girard Engineering Inc.

Electrical Engineers
Girard Engineering Inc.

Civil Engineers
Wiles Mensch Corporation

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