Project Data:

Completion Date:     2/15/2021

Square Footage:      31165

Building Use:           Performing Arts Venue, Community Gathering/Event Space

Project Description:

Woodbridge High School was named a Signature School by the GRAMMY Foundation for its outstanding music program—one of only 13 schools across the nation to receive this recognition. SVA was selected to design the new 650-seat performing arts center at the high school to provide a 21st century facility to better support its renowned performing arts program.

This contemporary complex is an essential expansion of the Irvine Unified School District’s performing arts program and provides the community with a fantastic space to explore cultural pursuits. The project features a stage with fly loft, orchestra pit, scene shop, and dressing rooms. The Black Box classroom is designed for Dance, Drama, and Visual Arts. Additionally, there are staff workrooms and collaborative teaming areas. The complex also introduces a new 1,600-square-foot black box theater complete with a sound and light control room, and various support spaces including a lobby and ticket booth. Equipment storage and staff office space were also incorporated into the new complex. The new building highlights the school’s front entrance, serving as a campus beacon that will house performances for both the school and community at large.

With its location at a prominent corner in the Irvine community, the new Performing Arts Center makes a strong visual impact against the scale of the rest of the neighborhood. The full fly loft rises 55 feet and creates a varied foreground to the sky and mountainous background of the campus through the use of standard CMUs and projected CMUs

The exterior CMU relief design was inspired by the images of music-generated soundwaves and the nearby Santa Ana mountains. Working with complementary colors to the existing campus, the abstract relief pattern was developed with the use of standard and projected CMUs. Portions of the relief pattern are carried throughout the exterior where the shadow patterns of the projected CMUs provide depth and movement throughout the day. Clear anodized aluminum and titanium color accents, and clear glazing at the lobby area provide the contrasts and highlights to the CMU colors.
One of the design challenges was that Performing Arts Centers require all portions of the stage to be separated from the seating area by a two-hour wall. Due to the height requirements for a stage and proscenium, concrete masonry units were the most economical way to provide the fire rating, height, and structural integrity, while also allowing increased wall mass to optimize the acoustics.

Firm Name:              SVA Architects, Inc.

Completion Date:     2/15/2021

Square Footage:      31165

Building Use:           Performing Arts Venue, Community Gathering/Event Space

Location:                 Irvine, CA

Project Description:
Design for Equitable Communities: Part of the project intent was to create a performing arts center for the neighboring community to use, not just for school use. With this in mind, there was an emphasis on having ample space for people to congregate and socialize. Open spaces in the lobby and upper-level lobby allow for visitors this opportunity.

Design for Ecosystems: Landscaping was introduced to soften the edges of the building while also adding to the local ecosystem rather than placing the project in all hardscapes. Additionally, the use of CMU is a highly resilient and a low maintenance material

Design for Economy: Efficient mechanical systems and low flow plumbing fixtures are items included in the design. With the cost of energy and water on the rise, the initial higher cost of these items should prove to provide cost savings after a period of time.

Design for Wellness: A place for the arts promotes a healthy lifestyle through the benefit gained for one’s mind, body, and spirit. Whether it’s audience members seated in a comfortable environment enjoying a show, or a performer using their mind to memorize lines, or a stagehand able to support the performance by having the best technology available, the project supports all of this.

Design Architect:
SVA Architects, Inc.

Associate Architect or Firm:
N/A

Landscape Architect:
RJM Design Group

Owner / Developer:
Irvine Unified School District

Engineer:
Civil Engineer: BKF Engineers
Structural Engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers
MEP/AV Engineer: tk1sc
Acoustic Engineer AES Acoustics

General Contractor:
CW Driver

Consultant:
Theater Design: The Theater Design

Photographer:
RMA Architectural Photography