Waynflete Arts Center

PORTLAND, MAINE

5,500 SF

The Waynflete School Arts Center project involved the complete re-thinking of the center section of the School\'s campus. Existing buildings had to be renovated, existing uses changed, and new buildings added to provide the spaces required for a complete arts teaching facility. The project required extensive research and work with the Building Committee and staff at the School, the neighborhood, the Historic Preservation Commission, and the Planning Board. When completed the facility will house over 36,000 SF of performing and visual arts space, including a 275 seat theater/auditorium, jazz and steel band studios, music rehearsal rooms, art studios, a dance studio, classrooms, offices, and support spaces. The existing 150 seat auditorium will be renovated to become a lower school gymnasium; the Daveis Building will be renovated to provide 9,000 SF of smaller classrooms, rehearsal rooms, and gallery spaces.

Urban design considerations were extremely important. The campus sits in the center of the Western Promenade Historic District, a very distinct residential neighborhood. SSA developed an organizational idea that allowed the major elements of the new program spaces to be organized in smaller "studio" buildings, roughly the size of the surrounding brick residential buildings. The new auditorium was located in the center of these "studio" buildings, masking its overall mass and size from the scale of the neighborhood. The design has been very well received by all the School\'s constituents. Construction on Phase One was completed during the Summer of 2002. Construction on Phase Two is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2008. Phase Two is designed and registered to obtain LEED Silver cerification.

Partners:

Structural: Becker Structural Engineers Inc.

Mechanical: Johnson & Jordan

Electrical: Neill & Gunter

Landscape: Michael Boucher Landscape Architects

Contractor: Cimino Construction

Awards

2003 MAIA Awards, Honorable Mention

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Photo Credit: Brian Vanden Brink