Brevard College, Paul Porter Performing Arts Center

Brevard, North Carolina

Firm

SchenkelShultz Architecture

Client

Brevard College

Area

41,000 sq.ft.

Total Cost

$6,500,000

Completion Date

08/1999

The Paul Porter Performing Arts Center anchors the eastern end of the Brevard College campus and focuses inward toward the campus and King Creek, which runs across the campus. A two-story, domed-glass enclosed rotunda with a winding staircase leads to second-level balcony seating. Although the rotunda of the lobby is on an axis with the main quadrangle of campus, the architectural concept more strongly relates to the pathways of the watershed of King Creek, blending the building with its natural setting.
The project includes a 740-seat “shoebox” concert hall designed for unamplified, natural music. The concert hall, experimental theater and amphitheater are the core teaching and recital spaces for the theater and music curriculum of the college.
From the exterior brick facade and the oak flooring in the lobby to a myriad of types and textures inside, materials and spatial proportions in all major spaces are dictated by acoustical requirements. The Performing Arts Center is mannerist in scale—every opportunity is made to minimize widths of pathways, widths of seats, distance from seats to stage, and integration of balcony and boxes with the stage.
The project incorporates theatrical lighting, and sound and video systems.

“Impressive facility…great sense of tradition and place.”—1999 jury