Mesa CC Performing Arts Center

2014 | Mesa, AZ | Performing Arts Center | 19,500 new / 24,550 sq ft remodel | $10.3 million
The new Mesa Community College Performing Arts Center supports a sustainable building ethic through the adaptive reuse and expansion of a vacant movie house adjacent to campus.
The centerpiece of the new facility is a 450 seat multipurpose theater designed to accommodate, both acoustically and theatrically, a broad range of musical performance. In addition to the main theater, a full complement of back of house spaces, including performance classrooms, music practice spaces, faculty offices and a performance lobby space, are outfitted into the old movie house. Additionally, a new entry courtyard is created by removing the roof from one of the old theatres located at the key intersection of the new and existing structures.
The architecture of the building is a composition inspired by the musical structure of cherished songs, creative re-purposing, and a respect for the unique qualities of the Sonoran desert. The new north masonry wall is folded along an ascending diagonal line derived from the opening clarinet glissando of “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin. The remaining new and existing exterior walls are a canvas for a composition of salvaged movie seat stanchions that cast dynamic shadows with the passing sunlight.