Architecture Sessions

Wednesday, March 19

Backstage tours of several of the Houston Theatre District Venues including the Alley Theatre, the Wortham Center (home to Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet), and Jones Hall. Tour sign up begins at 8am Wednesday at message boards, must have badge to sign up. First come, first served. No waiting list. Must be present to sign up. Bus transportation sponsored by Morris Architects.

Thursday, March 20

This discussion will revolve around how theatres are currently designed and what direction they should take in the future.

In 2007 the National Building Museum's exhibit Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean Theatre for the 21st Century, traced the longstanding fascination with the Globe theater, in which many of Shakespeare's plays premiered, and the numerous efforts to evoke the spirit of that structure in subsequent theater designs. The show culminated with a series of hypothetical Shakespearean theaters for the 21st century, which suggest innovative strategies for bringing the playwright's work to modern audiences. This session will present a slide show and discussion by the NBM Senior Vice President and curator Martin Moeller highlighting the five commissioned projects by talented architects and designers: John Coyne of Theatre Projects Consultants, H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, Office of Mobile Design, the Rockwell Group, and Michele Saee Studio.

This session will explore the interface of performance spaces with sound systems. Principal topics will include early reflection analysis, reverberation time considerations and loudspeaker dispersion control. This session is co-sponsored with the Sound Commission.

Friday, March 21

This session will provide insight into projects on the boards and current trends in arts projects, changing technology, and the attitude of “Build it: They will Come”. Other topics include lessons learned in PAC/Arts related projects that impact teaming from programming through design documentation and construction, and a review of case studies that illustrate greatest sucessues and pitfalls of this multi-disciplinary and emerging project type.

The annual Architecture Commission meeting and presentation of the 2008 USITT Distinguished Achievement Award in Architecture to William Rawn of William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc.

The annual review of the submissions for the Architecture Commission's 2008 round of USITT Architecture Awards, including discussion of winning projects.

The Architectural Commission, in conjunction with the Sound Design Commission, presents a session exploring the intersection of scenic and sound designs with theatre acoustics. The discussion focuses on the coupling of these elements to enhance the art of theatre and audience experience.

Review of submissions for the annual student design competition.

A display and discussion of the work of William Rawn, the recipient of USITT's Distinguished Achievement in Architecture Award for 2008.

Saturday, March 22

This session covers how new funding strategies, variable uses, and shared uses are impacting performance facility design.

Performing arts centers are notorious energy hogs in terms of construction and use. This session looks at designing "green" solutions for this type of facility.

This session will display, for better or worse, a variety of theatre designs for a lively discussion.

A look at room automation systems and their capabilities in the performing arts. These systems allow users to set up a facility with the push of a button. This will be presented for AIA continuing education credit.