Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1984 - 7

Construction began in July 1983 on
the main theatre building of the $65
million-plus Orange County Performing Arts Center (OCPAC) in Costa
Mesa, California. Billed as one of the
most complete and advanced performing arts facilities in the world, it is notable as a long-awaited "world class"
cultural center in a booming theatre
market area and as an embodiment of
some special architectural and acoustical approaches. This is a preliminary
report on those design features, including a look at our design process and the
difficulties and opportunities encountered. The architects are CaudillRowlett-Scott (CRS) of Houston, and
The Blurock Partnership (TBP) of
Newport Beach, California.
In these days of arts center boomjoining-rife on the West Coast and in
the Sunbelt-there is at least a special
and appealing gutsiness and strong
pragmatic foundation to the Orange
County project. It emerged with a very
clear and far-sighted conceptual foundation after more than thirty years of
talk, studies, schemes, and counterschemes, and study of nineteen potential sites. The facility is financed entirely by private "no strings" money, and
with a budget developed after schematic approval. All operations and
maintenance are enhanced by a $20 million endowment fund in place before
the completion of The Center. The
project became an opportunity to "do
one of these things really right," where
architects and consultants would be
hard - pressed to find any signi ficant restricting issues, rules, givens, or excuses. The results won't fully show until The Center opens in 1986; in the
meantime, we can preview the design
intent.
MuIti- Use: Another Try

For OCPAC, the 3000-seat theatre
is the crucial facility since it is the heart
of the operation, features an extremely
unconventional house, and attempts to
meet the challenge of the multi-use
hall. In fact, the goal is to set a new
standard for large multi - use theatres
which means setting the pace in terms
of architectural relationship of house to
stage, providing appropriate acoustical
environment, and achieving functional
excellence and completeness of support
space on a quick -changeover basis, all
for any mode: musical theatre, drama,

symphony, opera, ballet, or special TV
events.
OUf programming / research phase
re-encountered the simple but significant fact that there are very few large
true multi-use halls in the world. Although The Center was well-financed,
it was still not realistic to plan on site
room and budgets for a complex of
large single-purpose spaces-although
that might evolve someday. The people
at The Center and independent studies
agreed that the need was for a largecapacity hall very similar in operation
to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in
nearby Los Angeles and they believed a
state-of-the-art version was possible.
That was the architects' charge.
Special Design Features

The exterior, while striking and
even heroic in scale because of elements
like the granite-clad Grand Portal (a
very good "front door" and a dynamic
"proscenium" framing the lobby levels), does not actually break new architectural ground. CRS' siting, however,
is notable and The Center is an excellent
example of a cultural center in a mixeduse setting, more part of an agora than
something standing aloof in its own
acropolis. Helped by a deft move in realigning the adjacent street, the front
door focus works in several directions,
and even the 1000-seat theatre is a
strong energy-receiver, tucked in at the
head of an interesting "arrivals garden"
and sculpture-plaza/promenade. The
complex will relate strongly to the existing South Coast Plaza shopping center
and ever-increasing adjacent office
towers, hotels, restaurants, housing,
and parking. Pedestrian traffic to and
from all other attractions and destinations is encouraged by design, and the
sense of arrival-even into the parking
garage-will maintain a strong visual
contact with the plaza and the front of
the theatre.
Acoustics and Asymmetrical
Architecture
The biggest "new look" feature is
the asymmetrical seating layout. This
asymmetry is motivated by acoustical
design emphasis on lateral sound reflecting surfaces, and includes exotic
proscenium and side-wall shaping similarly devoted to delivering complex patterns of lateral sound reflection and
energy. The impetus here came from

J oint Venture Acoustical Consultants
(JVAC): Paoletti-Lewitz Associates,
San Francisco; Jerald R. Hyde, St. Helena, California; and Dr. Harold Marshall, of Auckland, New Zealand. What
has always been attractive about this
from the first stage of design is the organic bond between the acoustical concept and the resulting architecture.
That is, the strongly shaped interior is
an honest result of the need for acoustical surfaces plus their interplay with
lightports, catwalks, and certain sightline angles. Even this would not be
unique except for the degree to which
the asymmetrical approach was
developed.
How does it work? After a very
brief period in the first design workshop
with the architects studying conventional / symmetrical 3000-seat layouts,
the acousticians arrived and urged a
full-scale attack on the problem of a
truly asymmetrical hall, with seating
trays ending mid-fan, stacking up in a
spiral, and with walls at sharp angles to
the centerline in order to create lateral
reflections in the middle of the house.
This was based on the research and design experience of Harold Marshall and
Jerald Hyde, especially in concert halls
at Wellington and Christchurch, New
Zealand. Another request was a deep
penetration into the rear of the fan,
with splayed walls sending reflections
to house right and house left (just
where more seats are wanted in order to
reach 3000 capacity). Also there was
to be a sharp prow projecting into the
otherwise flat ceiling area. Convincing
test tapes of the "lateral" effect were
inspiring additions to some of those
sketch sessions trying to envision the
asymmetrical ideal.
This led to plenty of design wrestling. How could exiting be achieved
when a given seating section or balcony
ended in the middle of the room, especially when continental seating was indicated in order to reach capacity with
reasonable efficiency? Where could
structural support be found? How to
run ducts? What 0 f the loss 0 f seats just
when a given seating area reached the
centerline of the house-the traditional
best seats? After many sketches, study
models, and exiting analyses (plus exploratory talks with code officials) a
progression of five seating levels
emerged: Level 2 as a terrace above
Level I, creating a "cliff," then Level 3
over Level I, Level 4 over Level 2, and

USITT /Sul11mer 1984/Theatre Design & Technology

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