After 20 years in the heart of Anaheim, California, the City National Grove of Anaheim venue will soon become the Anaheim Performing Arts Center. Today, SPF:a from Culver City unveiled their scheme for the new $500 million project.
For starters, the 500,000-square-foot campus will feature three theaters: a 2,000-seat concert hall, a 1,700-seat opera hall, and a 600-seat black box theatre. It'll also include a museum tower with an observatory set on a 24-foot podium, an outdoor amphitheater, a convention hall, office space, two restaurants, and lecture rooms.
Featuring concentric circles and perforated copper-anodized cladding on the main structures, the campus pays tribute to Anaheim's agricultural history. After Anaheim's vineyards succumbed to disease in the late 19th century, the city invested in citriculture. “Anaheim’s socioeconomic driver quickly became the orange, so naturally our design for the center was influenced by it,” said SPF:a design principal Zoltan E. Pali.
The design team closely studied trees — from their trunks to their root structures to their leaves — as well as the skin of an orange, which all revealed circular elements that were incorporated into the APAC's design. The campus organization is based on a grid commonly used in orchards, “with each major building adopting a circular shape deriving from an orange tree,” SPF:a says.
Concentric circles extend from the key buildings to the edges of the campus property to create a new landscape, which is defined by paths, paving, and open spaces. Other campus features include a grand fountain, a reflecting pool, green roof, and underground parking. The landscape will comprise of plants that are L.A.-native, xeric, and can provide shade.
“We imagined that if we were to roll up the pavement of the parking lot we would find the old spirits of old citrus trees,” says Pali. The APAC is expected to take 2 1/2-3 years to construct.
Find more project images in the gallery below.
2 Comments
"the campus pays tribute to Anaheim's agricultural history. After Anaheim's vineyards succumbed to disease in the late 19th century, the city invested in citriculture. “Anaheim’s socioeconomic driver quickly became the orange, so naturally our design for the center was influenced by it"
A couple of things. First, does good civic design need to be sequestered on to a campus? Second, there's nothing natural about this design being influenced by oranges, assuming one could read that into these buildings. Third, how well will these buildings age and what will their long term up keep be. Lastly, the main building looks a little like a nuclear reactor. It's cool for sure, but is it going to be a great place?
Looked at the first image and thought to myself, sure, this looks intriguing., but then I saw the whole campus replication set-up. Quickly goes from interesting to meh. The ocean of surface parking conveniently greyed-out sure helps.
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