ARCHITECT:
Baker + Ogeta

DATES:
2006

PROJECT SIZE:
ninety six hundred square feet

PROJECT COST:
$1,800,000

DESCRIPTION:
This Auditorium / Theater is situated inside the Richard Meier and Partners designed Visitors Center at the Crystal Cathedral. The cathedral campus carries significant architectural importance as it also includes buildings designed by I.M. Pei and Richard Neutra. Our scope of work consisted of constructing and integrating all the mechanical requirements with the theater systems and architectural finishes. Maple clad walls form the North aisles while plaster forms the ceilings and South aisles. The Proscenium is framed by solid bent maple canopy with curved fiberglass panels. The maple stage carries into the wings and green room.
Critical attention was given to the quality of light in the theater apart from the technical theater lighting systems. These back-lit fiberglass panels provide a soft, even illumination.
         
   
The stage floor is select maple laid on a "floating sleeper" system to allow the proper resilience for dancers.
The primary design idea consistes of the asymmetrical theater. Note the loan column to the left.
Almost half of our efforts concentrated on the often over-looked ceiling. The black lines are the 'linear' heating and air conditioning registers. We filled the entire theater with scaffolding to the ceiling for three months for access.
The two large black banks of lights in the ceiling can be lowered to the floor for easy adjustment of the theater lighting. 'Can I get a blue spot?'
The quality of this bent maple is at the craftmanship level of Alvar Aalto furniture.