Sonoma Academy Community Performing Arts Center
Santa Rosa, Calif.
BEST PROJECT, K-12 EDUCATION and Award of Merit, Security
Sent by: Quattrocchi Kwok Architects
Owner: Sonoma Academy
Schematic design company: WRNS study
Architect of record: Quattrocchi Kwok Architects
General contractor: DPR construction
Civil Engineer: Brelje & Race
Structural Engineer: ZFA Structural Engineers
MEP Engineer: Interface engineering
Theater consultant: The Shalleck Collaborative
Landscape architect: Carducci & Associates
Sonoma Academy’s new professional-grade performing arts facility spans more than 27,000 square feet. The structure will support the high school’s strong theater activities, as well as music and film programs.
“We envisioned a space that, from aesthetics to functionality, would evoke the feeling of being in a professional theater, and this was achieved through meticulous collaboration between teams,” says Steve Kwok, principal emeritus of Quattrocchi Kwok Architects. “The result is a stunning facility that blends seamlessly into its natural surroundings and offers students and the community a place to create, learn, gather and enjoy.”
In addition to a theater with a full orchestra pit that seats 428 people, the building boasts a wealth of technical capabilities, including digitally controllable theater lighting and an audiovisual system with Dolby sound along with a 4K laser projector.
Photo by Technical Imagery Studios
Other features include an actor’s studio with an adjacent classroom for instruction and rehearsal space, as well as support spaces such as a glass-enclosed lobby, box office and dressing rooms. There are also multiple accommodations and features spread throughout the space, from dimmable lighting and seating arrangements to an air conditioning system that moves air at low speeds. To avoid acoustic problems, double-glazed windows and blackout curtains block out sound and light whenever necessary.
This facility now completes a circle of buildings that hugs the central campus, with rolling hillsides as a backdrop. The campus itself covers 34 acres, which are surrounded by 1,000 acres of protected open space adjacent to Santa Rosa’s Taylor Mountain Regional Park.
“Performing arts buildings require volume and scale to ensure optimal functionality, and our team was concerned about the impact of a large building on the campus fabric,” says Adam Woltag, partner at WRNS Studio. “By working with the natural contours of the site and breaking down the overall mass and program into different smaller volumes, the new Community Performing Arts Center can engage the campus without overwhelming it.”
Photo by Technical Imagery Studios
Integrating the complexly curved design of the building into the topography of the site proved to be the project team’s biggest challenge, as the teams essentially had to build a theater with no straight lines on the side of a 14-foot hill .
Theater consultant The Shalleck Collaborative suggested that the building’s configuration should be rotated 90 degrees to allow for easier placement on the hillside, although a complex foundation and extensive vertical concrete walls were also required to support the building.
The roof of the main floor along with the mezzanine and surrounding spaces were constructed of cross-laminated timber (CLT) supported by a steel frame. Most MEP systems are hidden so that the CLT can be shown as much as possible. In fact, the lobby is on a hidden raised access floor, with all mechanical ducts routed below ground.
“The project was a technical challenge. [The team built] a curved steel and concrete structure, tilted and irreverently non-linear on a rocky hillside, combining aesthetics and structure with the exposed heavy timber timber roof structure while hiding from view all mechanical ventilation and miles of electrical conduit , and making a wood, steel interior, glass and fabric that come together seamlessly,” adds Daniel Berson, Project Manager of DPR Construction.
