Arts Alliance

Small Project Has Big Purpose

By Rob Patterson

A small-scale expansion will serve an important purpose for the University of Houston by creating an alliance among the university's various arts disciplines.

The 15,000-sq.-ft. addition to the 43,000-sq.-ft. Wortham Theater Complex at the University of Houston is not a large structure, but the complicated, $3.1 million project will have a huge impact.

It will serve as a focal point and offices for the school's Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts.

"The Mitchells, who endowed the center, were interested in doing something to link the arts and foster collaboration," said Dave Irvin, associate vice chancellor and associate vice president for facilities and plant operation for the university. "It creates an alliance among five of the university's academic and arts units within its liberal arts and social sciences programs."

The two-level structure adds a two-story lobby space, second-level rehearsal studios and offices to the original 1977 steel-frame structure clad with brick. The addition has a poured concrete slab and frame for the entrance and lobby. Above the second-level deck for the studios and office space, it has a steel frame and roof.

Work began on the project in November and will be completed in August.

"The idea was to create a front for the building to make it special and serve as an icon," said Kim Monroe, a partner with Lake/Flato Architects of San Antonio. "We tried to respect the original architecture by keeping the forms simple and geometric. Context is important to this project."

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The lobby features stone floors and acoustical plaster with wood paneling on the walls and ceiling. A concrete frame rather than the original building's steel structure made the most sense for the space.

"We were trying to span long distances, and with the high ceilings, it wasn't as applicable to use steel," Monroe said. "By using concrete, everything got a lot more lightweight visually. We priced it both ways, and found we could do it at the same price in concrete."

John Dennis, project manager for the Houston office of Dallas-based general contractor Cadence McShane, said various technologies were used. The building is "slab on grade, the second level is cast-in-place concrete with post-tension cable, and then it has a steel frame and roof," he added. "Nothing about it is easy."

The first-story exterior is clad with Cordova cream limestone that also extends to the second story on the lobby section. The rest of the second story is window wall and zinc-clad metal panels.

One obstacle on the job was working around the student population and ongoing theater activities. "The entry is a high-traffic area for students with nearby pedestrian and vehicle traffic," Dennis said. "It's a tight area to work in with no laydown space that is right in the center of campus."

Much of the initial demolition work was performed during the winter break. But once students returned, "We had to redirect traffic next to the project and build walkways for the students," Dennis added.

Most of the theater performances in the evening were not affected by the work, but children's programs during the day required extra precautions. "We had to figure out how to bring children in safely and conduct performances while there were jack hammers and construction going on," Irvin said.

"It's a small project, but from a scheduling standpoint it's probably as complex as any project we've done."

To help preserve the high-end character of the lobby, the required fire doors between it and the existing theater were hidden. "The architect took great pains to conceal them and build chase walls," Dennis said. "In case of fire, the doors slide out."

The window wall around the second-story rehearsal spaces "makes them much more visible and allows you to see in and see people rehearsing and performing from the outside," Irvin said.

The limestone and glass façade helps bring the Wortham Theatre building into harmony with the campus plan. "The original building was sort of nondescript and didn't really relate to anything else on campus," Irvin said. "What our addition is trying to do is use materials that we're using at a lot of different places on campus.

"It links together the whole quadrangle that has music on one side, fine arts on another and the theater on the south side."