Friend’s School Visual and Performing Arts Building

Location
Baltimore, Maryland

Owner
Friends School of Baltimore

Team
Acoustics and AV - Threshold
Architect - Ziger/Snead LLP Architects
Theatre Consultant - Theatre Consultants Collaborative

Status
Completed 2015

Size
15,885 square feet
400 seats

Cost
$8,500,000

The main theatre at the Friends School of Baltimore is central to the community life of the school, hosting the weekly Collection (student/staff convocation) and a crowded calendar of rehearsals, theatrical shows, and concerts.

After a feasibility study for a new performing arts building pointed instead to reuse of the theatre, plans were developed to rake the floor, raise the ceiling and open the proscenium to enlarge the acoustic volume, add a control room, variable acoustics, and a major expansion of the AV systems, all within the walls of the existing building.

The new 400-seat theatre allows for a stage that varies in size to accommodate the largest of the school’s choirs and bands - up to 120 voices and 90 instrumentalists - as well as intimately staged dramas and lectures. A unique stage panel system will pivot and slide to be used as either an orchestra shell or stage masking. New HVAC systems will provide a quiet setting for all events in the room.

A new lobby, designed to also hold receptions, and an extensive new scene shop were added immediately adjacent to, yet acoustically separated from the theatre. Inside, warm and inviting materials further reflect the school’s Quaker values.