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Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College
Since 1990, Bard College has drawn an international crowd to historic Hudson Valley for an annual classical music festival housed at the Fisher Center, a Frank Gehry designed, world-class concert hall nestled among the foothills of the Catskill Mountains.
Bard desired a multi-purpose hall that would be flexible, accessible, and optimize the Center’s capacity so the college could showcase its versatility in hosting opera, dance, theatrical, and musical productions.
| Client | Bard College |
|---|---|
| Architect: | Gehry Partners |
| Size | 1 Story | 107,000 SF (9,940 SM) |
| Office: | New York |
| Completion: | 2003 |
As structural engineers for the project, to create the performance auditorium and rigging tower of the 800-seat Sosnoff Theatre, we designed tall, slender, cast-in-place concrete walls. We then cantilevered the first and second balcony seating sections from these walls, ensuring they were carefully balanced with the hallway floors outside the auditorium. We housed the 200-seat, teaching-focused LUMA Theatre, with auditorium and rigging tower, in reinforced concrete masonry.
The exterior of the buildings, which envelop the functional boxes, embody the signature Frank Gehry metal skin. Complex, compound, sinuous, computer-generated curves define the form that the thin, stainless-steel sheathing follows.
A unique harmony of steel and concrete, the resulting center offers the versatility to host almost any size and type of performance.
