REX creates "holy grail" combination of performance spaces in Providence

Lindemann Center Rex Architecture

New York architecture studio REX the “most automated” performance building in the world at Brown University’s campus in Providence, Rhode Island.

Called The Lindemann Performing Arts Center (The Lindemann) the 101,000 square-foot (9,383-square-metre) structure consists of a shoebox theatre with a long bridge-like walkway.

It stands between Brown’s primary campus and Pembroke College, a women’s college that merged with the primary campus in 1971.

Scallopped facade of Brown University Theatre
REX designed a performance centre in Rhode Island

According to REX founder Joshua Ramus, the brief for the project was to combine  small performance spaces with student facilities and a home for Rhode Island’s symphony orchestra.

“We had these two diametrically opposed needs, which historically have never been combined,” Ramus told Dezeen.

“I feel like the building is a bit of a holy grail. It’s achieved something that most people thought was impossible.”

People standing in the window of a cantilevered lobby
It stands between two aspects of Brown University’s campus

In order to accomplish this flexibility, the studio, working with Brown Arts Institute (BAI), created a shoebox-style theatre with a variety of automated features that allow for different configurations.

Moving walls, ceilings, balconies, catwalks, gantries, staging and seating allow for the building to host both large and small concerts.

Aluminium facade and clear walkway
It has a “fractal” aluminium facade

“It was effectively like building five buildings in one,” said Ramus.

“It’s more automated than any other performing arts building in the world.”

Interior of the lindemann theatre
The theatre has five preset settings for different sizes of performance and is highly automated

Automation was important for the project because the Lindemann was designed as a learning institution. It features a grid iron that is easy to remove around so that students can use rigging.

It has a number of automated safety features including a laser system that halts operations if something is detected between two moving parts.

Gantry in Lindemann Center
It has a number of safety features that allow it to be safe for students

In addition to its flexibility, the structure was designed to make the arts visible to the campus.

To accomplish this, REX included a “clear storey”, a glazed walkway that runs the length of the building, passing between the shoebox form and the exterior wall.

Leo Villareal installation
Artist Leo Villareal designed a lighting installation for the lobby

A lobby cantilevers with a Vierendeel truss off the east side of the structure, and all of the structural elements for the building are confined to the edges of the building so that no columns had to be put within the theatre itself, except for trusses that support the moveable gantries.

A light installation by US artist Leo Villareal has been installed in the lobby.

Lindemann Center
Panes of glass run along the first level walkway, opening the building to the campus

“There’s this weird thing that you go into the lobby, and it’s an eight-and-a-half foot space, that has all these tightly spaced columns,” Ramus told Dezeen.

“And then you go into the main hall and it’s this massive space and there’s no structure. So it’s this weird inversion.”

Cantilevered theatre
The lobby cantilevers out from the theatre structure

Ramus added that the difference in width and structural composition between the lobby and the theatre allows for a “suspension of disbelief” as people make their way into a performance.

For the exterior, REX aimed to create a contemporary structure that “played nicely” with the surrounding historical styles.

It wrapped the building in iridescent aluminium cladding with fins of various depths that form a “fractal” pattern.

Most of the structure is above ground, with some below-grade facilities for practice and research included.

Brown University aerial shot with Lindemann
It serves as a walkway between two parts of campus

Passerbys can see directly into the theatre through the glass-lined walkway and the the theatre walls are also lined with glass on this side.

To improve acoustics, layers of glass were used and the theatre can be shut off from the outside by means of an acrylic curtain that has a metallic sheen similar to that of the aluminium cladding on the exterior.

Ramus was the principal of OMA‘s New York office before founding REX in 2000.

The studio has completed a series of performance venues that are iterations of the flexibility seen in the Lindemann. These include the Perelman Center in Downtown Manhattan at the World Trade Center site and the Wyly Theatre in Texas.

The photography is by Iwan Baan.

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