Dallas, Texas, United States
Foster + Partners
Post By:Kitticoon Poopong
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| Photo © Courtesy of Timothy Hursley |
Opera Reaches Out: Using a Modern vocabulary, Foster + Partners reinterprets the traditional music hall to create the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House.
With a steel-frame
canopy stretching well beyond its performance hall, the Winspear Opera House reaches out to other constituents of the
AT&T Performing Arts Center. As designed by Foster + Partners, the building reflects the values of Bill Winspear, the Canadian-born entrepreneur who donated $43 million to the approximately $150 million project to share his passion for music with as many people as possible and make sure the hall’s acoustics would be excellent. Certainly, the second goal has been realized, and the opera house’s design encourages the first.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Timothy Hursley |
Attitudes toward the arts have changed radically since the initial plan for the center respectfully aligned each institution along a single street (Flora). Today, generous open spaces intended to attract crowds of nontheatergoers are considered as important as the buildings themselves. To encourage this democratization, the architects enlivened the plan with new axes that link the buildings with plazas and the surrounding streets—notably a north–south path perpendicular to Flora. Consequently, the Winspear now shares with
I.M. Pei’s
Meyerson Symphony Center (1989) an inviting 10-acre park and an orientation rotated 30 degrees from the street.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Nigel Young/Foster + Partners |
The horizontal thrust of the Winspear’s massive solar canopy provides a nice contrast to the verticality of the Wyly Theatre by REX/OMA across Flora Street. Stretching 463 by 378 feet, the canopy surrounds the red-glass drum that encloses the building’s auditorium, stage, fly tower, and cooling towers. A steel structure with anodized-aluminum louvers set at various angles to follow the sun’s path, it offers solar protection for a public plaza and the 60-foot-high glass walls wrapping around the building’s lobby. In good weather, sliding glass panels running the entire length of the east side of the lobby open so visitors in the restaurant and café can sit or mingle outside.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Timothy Hursley |
By creating a temperate outdoor oasis, the canopy reduces heating and cooling loads on indoor spaces. The architects employed a number of other energy-saving strategies, including a displacement ventilation system in the hall that pumps air from the floor—cooling people but not all the space above them. They also landscaped the shady refuge under the pergolalike structure with squares of lawn and wildflower plantings and a black-granite reflecting pool where a film of water hovers above the names of donors, flush with the surrounding pavement. While the canopy’s enormous grid extends the building’s reach outdoors and helps to define an enlarged public realm, its scale and rigidity are oppressive.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Timothy Hursley |
Reversing the traditional color scheme for opera houses, Foster put red on the outside, not the inside, of the hall, making it the district’s most prominent constituent. The firm clad the Winspear’s concrete drum with bright ruby PVB (polyvinyl butyral) interlayers laminated between two sheets of glass. By illuminating the colorful skin from both the back and front, the designers were able to create bold signage in the daytime and at night, when the house is washed in a red glow of light.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Iwan Baan |
In a daring gesture in car-centric Dallas, the architects placed egress from underground parking in the landscaped plaza outside the building, forcing all patrons to enter through the same set of doors on grade. However, what might have been a dramatic processional fails to materialize because the entrance aligns with the arts center’s new north–south axis rather than the opera house’s main axis. So visitors enter to one side of the grand stairway that anchors the enormous lobby, an arrangement akin to slipping in the side door. Furthermore, the performance hall’s red-glass panels, while effective from the exterior, fail to warm up the rather cool feeling of the lofty glass-and-aluminum lobby. Circulation nevertheless appears to be efficient, via elevators and wide stairs that hug the theater’s curve, with bars and cafés on the first and second levels.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Iwan Baan |
The theater itself offers a warmer environment. Like many new auditoriums, it has double doors to isolate sound at every level. It employs a traditional horseshoe configuration, which Bob Essert, the opera’s acoustical consultant, deems “a guarantee of good acoustics.” Four gently sloped tiers of seating only 90 feet from the stage make the hall feel exceptionally intimate. The glass-fiber-reinforced-concrete fronts of these balconies, which look like crinkled ribbons when illuminated, stand out against the dark brown, textured-plaster peripheral walls and make the 2,200-seat theater feel smaller than it is. By continuing the balconies’ top tier in a ring in front of the barely noticeable proscenium, the architects further enhanced this effect. A fire curtain designed by Argentine artist Guillermo Kuitca protects the main stage, which is supplemented with an ample rear stage and wings, all equipped with state-of-the-art technology. A 70-foot-tall retractable chandelier made of 318 thin, acrylic light rods, along with charcoal-gray Ultrasuede upholstery and burnt walnut floors, complete the house’s elegant decor.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Iwan Baan |
Following Bill Winspear’s insistence that the new house be first and foremost for opera (with other kinds of performance, such as dance and touring shows taking second place), Essert aimed for a warm, voluptuous sound best suited for the mainstream 18th- and 19th-century operas featured by the Dallas company. He achieved this and more, as attested by New York Times chief music critic Anthony Tommasini, who cited the Winspear’s exceptional combination of “richness and resonance” and its bright, clear sound. But for those who heard Foster’s garbled comments on opening night, some fine-tuning is still needed when amplification is used.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Timothy Hursley |
Spencer de Grey, one of Foster’s senior partners, points out that his team made many decisions with acoustics in mind. So they built the hall basically of timber on concrete with hard textured plaster walls on masonry in the theater to reinforce bass response, and designed slightly convex peripheral walls to help disperse sound and prevent echoes. A large, open orchestra pit—which can be raised and lowered on two lifts—accommodates up to 100 musicians.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Nigel Young/Foster + Partners--The balcony-front relief pattern reinterprets opulent Classical-style decoration and helps disperse sound. “Rather than covering the surfaces with cherubs, we applied [decoration] in new ways,” says James McGrath, a partner in Foster’s office. |
De Grey is particularly enthusiastic about an outdoor performance space currently under construction that aims to reinforce the building’s reputation for reaching out to the public. Connected with the opera house and protected by the solar canopy, this outdoor square will continue a tradition of pop concerts and fiestas that for decades have attracted as many as 5,000 people a night.
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| tier one level plan--drawing Courtesy of Foster + Partners |
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| orchestra level plan--drawing Courtesy of Foster + Partners |
The Winspear stands in a long line of opera houses that reserve innovation for the exterior rather than for the theater inside. Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House (1973) in Australia, and more recently Snøhetta’s Norwegian National Opera House in Oslo (2009) come to mind in this regard. Most of these schemes employ the horseshoe configuration established by Carlo Fontana in Venice more than 300 years ago and championed by Essert today; one of the few exceptions is Zaha Hadid’s unbuilt Cardiff Bay Opera House (1994–96).
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| section B-B--drawing Courtesy of Foster + Partners |
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| section A-A--drawing Courtesy of Foster + Partners |
For half a century, cultural institutions have served as linchpins for urban renewal and expansion. So in addition to its success as a superior home for opera and its ability to adapt to other genres, the Winspear will be judged on how well it can overcome the elitist isolation of an earlier era and connect with the city around it.
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| sound space design--drawing Courtesy of Sound Space Design--Computer modeling helped the project team investigate and illustrate the progress of sound waves from the stage toward the rear of the room. |
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| sound space design--drawing Courtesy of Sound Space Design |
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| sound space design--drawing Courtesy of Sound Space Design |
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| sound space design--drawing Courtesy of Sound Space Design |
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| sound space design--drawing Courtesy of Sound Space Design |
The People Architect
Foster + Partners
Riverside
22 Hester Road
London SW11 4AN
United Kingdom
T. +44 (0)20 7738 0455
F. +44 (0)20 7738 1107
Norman Foster (Registered UK)
Spencer de Grey (Registered UK)
Stefan Behling (Registered UK)
Michael Jones (Registered UK)
James McGrath
Bjørn Polzin (Registered UK)
Laszlo Pallagi (Registered UK)
Morgan Fleming
Leonhard Weil (Registered UK/Germany)
John Small
Ingrid Sölken (Registered Germany)
Hugh Whitehead (Registered UK)
Francis Aish
Architect of record:
Kendall Heaton Associates
Interior designer:
Foster + Partners
Engineer(s):
Structural:
Buro Happold
Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers
Services Engineer:
Battle McCarthy
CHP & Associates
Consultant(s)
Landscape:
Michel Desvigne, France
Kevin Sloan, Dallas
JJR, Chicago
Lighting:
Claude R. Engle Lighting Consultant
Acoustical:
Sound Space Design
Other:
Theatre Consultant:
Theatre Projects Consultants
Code Consultants:
Pielow Fair & Associates, Seattle
Cost Consultants:
Donnell Consultants, Florida
Foodservice Consultants:
JGL Management Services, New Jersey
Cine Little, Florida
Geotechnical Engineers:
GME Consulting Services Inc., Dallas
Sound System Design:
Engineering Harmonics, Inc.
Transportation Consulting:
Deshazo, Tang & Associates, Inc.
Parking Consultants:
Carl Walker Inc., Dallas
Maintenance Cleaning Access:
Citadel Consulting Inc.
Architect for the parking garage:
Good Fulton & Farrell
Security:
HMA Consulting, Inc.
Curtain Wall Consultant:
LZA Technology
ADA consultant:
McGuire Associates, Inc.
Elevator Consultant:
Persohn/Hahn Associates, Inc.
Acoustical and Vibration Consultant:
Wilson, Ihrig & Associates, Inc.
Graphic consultant:
2 X 4 Design
General contractor:
Linbeck Construction
Photographer(s)
Timothy Hursley | | The ProductsStructural system:
W & W Steel - Structural Steel Material
Exterior cladding
Masonry:
Lucia - CMU Masonry Work
Sigma Marble – Stonework
Metal/glass curtainwall:
Seele - Curtainwall & Exterior Glass
Concrete:
W.A.C. Concrete Construction - Forming/Placing/Finishing Concrete
Roofing
Anchor Roofing – Roofing
A. Zahner Company - Canopy Louvers,
Cladding
Glazing
Glass:
DGB Glass- Interior Glass & Glazing
Haley Greer - Red Drum Cladding/Glass Wall Panel System
Skylights:
Super Sky Products - Skylights
Insulated-panel or plastic glazing:
Doors
Industrial Acoustics - Acoustical Doors
Upswinging doors, other:
Dallas Door & Supply - Doors, Frames &
Hardware
Interior finishes
Acoustical (ceilings) Doors:
Industrial Acoustics – Acoustical Doors
Anton Cabinetry – Millwork
Paints and stains:
Carrco Painting - Painting
Carpet:
Wilson Office Interiors- Carpet & VCT
Rubber Flooring:
Norafloor, Wilson (installation)
Stone Flooring:
Sigma
Wood Flooring:
Woodwright Company
Furnishings
Fixed seating:
Series USA LLC - Seating
Vision Products - Glass Ornamental Handrail
Lighting
Interior ambient lighting: Louis Poulsen
Conveyance
Elevators/Escalators:
Accessibility provision (lifts, ramping, etc.):
ThyssenKrupp Elevator Corp. - Elevators & Wheel Chair Lifts
Plumbing
Brandt Engineering - Mechanical and Plumbing
Greenscape Pump Services - Fountain Work
ValleyCrest Landscape Develop. - Landscape & Irrigation
J.R. Clancy - Performance Equipment
Clair Brothers - Performance Sound, Video & Communication Equip. |
