Winspear Opera House / Foster + Partners
Location: Dallas, Texas, USA
Architects: Foster + Partners
Team: Norman Foster, Spencer Gray, Stefan Behling, Michael Jones, James McGrath, Bjørn Polzin, Laszlo Pallagi, Morgan Fleming, Leonhard Weil, John Small, Ingrid Solkan, Hugh Whitehead, Francis Aish
Client: AT & T Performing Arts Center
Associate architect: Kendall Heaton Associates
Builder: Linbeck Construction
Acoustics: Sound Space Design
Consultant Theaters: Theater Projects Consultants
Structural Engineering: Buro Happold, Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers
Engineering Services: Battle McCarthy, CHP & Associates
Lighting: Claude R. Engle Lighting Consultant
Consultant Legislation: Pielow Fair & Associates, Seattle
Cost Consultant: Donnell Consultants, Florida
Food Service Consultant: JGL Management Services, New Jersey; Film Little, Florida
Geotechnical Engineering: GME Consulting Services Inc., Dallas; Landscape Designers Michel Desvignes, France, Kevin Sloan, Dallas, JJR, Chicago
Sound System Design, Engineering Harmonics, Inc.
Consultant Transport: Deshazo, Tang & Associates, Inc.
Parking Consultant: Carl Walker Inc., Dallas
Maintenance Visits: Citadel Consulting Inc.
Parking Lot Architect Good Fulton & Farrell
Security Consultant: HMA Consulting, Inc.
Curtain wall consultant: LZA Technology
Accessibility Consultant: McGuire Associates, Inc.
Consultant Lifts: Persohn / Hahn Associates, Inc.
Acoustics and Vibration Consultant: Wilson Ihrig & Associates, Inc.
Consultant Graphic Design: 2 X 4 Design
The new Dallas Opera redefines the essence of an opera house in the XXI century, breaking the old barriers to making opera accessible to a wider audience. In response to the climate of Dallas, a generous deck extends from the building, leaving beneath it a fully glazed lobby 18 feet high. This establishes a direct relationship between inside and outside, through transparency. Under the cover, which is an integral part of environmental strategy, an indoor arena becomes a new public space for Dallas, as defined by the masterplan for the Arts District. This masterplan was designed by Foster + Partners and OMA with Michel Desvignes.
Opera, with its cover on the orthogonal grid on Flora Street, is the focus of this district, which also includes the Dee and Charles Wyly Theater (REX + OMA), Booker T Washington School, the H Meyerson Symphony Center and future, the City Performance Hall. Opera Around the same, misaligned with respect to the grid, is the Plaza of the Artists Annette Strauss, a space for outdoor entertainment with a capacity for 5,000 people, a space for smaller performances, a cafe and the entrance Main access to parking. Sammons Park Next to this public place and these spaces are integral to the project, connected to the city in an urban scale.
In terms of organization, Opera creates a series of clear spaces open to the public, involving a cylinder of red glass, which contains an auditorium seating 2,200 people. The building, besides being an integral part of the cultural circuit of Dallas, is a destination for people who have no connection with the opera, with a restaurant and a cafe open to the public during the day. Under a lower deck, the transition from the Great Plaza through the foyer into the auditorium, is designed to enhance the feeling of being at a show - in effect, "taking the stage to the audience." The grand staircase, which flows from one side of the cylinder, connects all areas of the lobby and gives the audience a request to stop, gather and watch. Walkways in the cylinder allow the audience to move horizontally in each of the levels of balconies.
The auditorium itself creates an intimate environment for artists. Working with Theater Projects, developed a strategy of "horseshoes" which combined with the vertical stacking of the balconies, allowing the audience is as close to the stage. This intimacy is reinforced by the emphasis on the front of the balcony, with its white gold finish contrasted with dark red interior. The acoustics, developed by Bob Essert of Sound Space Design, is enhanced by the compactness of the auditorium. The details and finishes enhance the resonance of the sound of human voices, making the orchestra sound more rich and clear at once. To increase the drama, a chandelier made from acrylic rod 320 becomes an inverted cone of light, which ascends to heaven from the audience at the start of the show. To complete the auditorium, the prominent Argentine artist Guillermo Quintero has designed the stage curtain.
Punctuated by local trees, protected areas cover public benefit from a microclimate cool in the shade. Vertical glass panels in the total height of the east side, allowing the building with a restaurant and cafe open all the way outside, enhancing the quality of transit of this space. La Gran Plaza answered the grid cover with a pattern marked on the concrete, referring to the urban grid of the great Dallas. The Plaza contains squares of grass and wildflowers, with Source of Donors as a focus. This black granite fountain is set in the pavement, with a thin layer of water that enhances the names of those who financed the project, inscribed on the stone through steel letters.
