The United State Institute of Theatre Technology (USITT) recognized Chapman University’s new Musco Center for the Arts with a 2017 Merit Award. The 1,050-seat hall handily transforms from a proscenium theater to a concert hall, with a 55-ton acoustical shell that flies to storage and two orchestra lifts that can create a Broadway pit, large opera pit or stage extension for concert mode. The hall’s complex acoustic demands are met by the large copper colored acanthus leaf-shaped panels that precisely articulate and reflect sound, while establishing the visual motif of a hidden garden, complete with “fire fly” lights on the fasciae. The annual awards program, held this year in St. Louis, Missouri, honors excellence in architecture for theater and performance spaces.

(November 2016)