Experimental Development

New Performing Arts Center Tracks Unique Path Toward Completion

by Katherine S. Robertson

The new Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at the Troy, N.Y., campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is playing an outsized role in the future of a school known for its engineering and science programs.

Like Alice's trip down the rabbit hole, nothing is what you might expect. But upon reflection, it all makes perfect sense.

For instance, it makes perfect sense that the engineering and science institution is building a performing arts theater. That's because the new theater also involves cutting-edge studio design and artistic technologies, including a 4-million-lb. concrete box-in-a-box that sits on 142 steel springs and is designed to keep noise levels below 15 db - less than the sound of a human whisper.

It also makes perfect sense that the 90-ft.-high curtain wall - the building's most striking feature - is barely visible from campus and that you enter the structure from the top to get to the bottom. That's because the 212,000-sq.-ft. structure is built into a hillside looming over the Hudson River Valley.

And it makes perfect sense that the site presented a daunting hurdle.

"RPI is an engineering school," said Oleh Turczak, RPI's assistant vice president for capital projects. "One of the reasons we chose this site was because of the engineering challenges."

The $145 million EMPAC project broke ground in 2003, funded primarily through a $360 million capital campaign. Construction is expected to finish in 2007.

The project made sense for the university from the start, said Johannes Goebel, a professor of music who is directing the EMPAC effort.

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"This is not about moving Rensselaer away from engineering and science," he added. "One of the missions of EMPAC is to be on the cutting edge of technology and the cutting edge of art and reflection."

Designed by London-based Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners, the new center will include a 1,200-seat concert hall; a 400-seat theater with an 80- by 40-ft. stage and fly tower; and professional recording, editing, and postproduction facilities. It will also feature studios for artists in residence, rehearsal spaces, support facilities, and two multimedia studios - one 3,500 sq. ft. with a 40-ft. ceiling and the other 2,500 sq. ft. with a 28-ft. ceiling.

The design was complicated even at the foundation level because the 215- by 312-ft. site stands over 80 to 90 ft. of clay. The unstable clay rests on top of argillite, a hard sedimentary rock, said Stephen Coates, project engineer for Turner Construction of New York, the general contractor.

The foundation walls are supported by 203 steel-threaded tiebacks, which are 1.75-in.-diameter, high-strength rods, some of which are driven as deep as 200 ft. before hitting bedrock.

"Troy is on an active fault, and the soil supporting the building is prone to liquefaction under vibration," Coates said. "That's why we have such a robust foundation structure."

Once the foundations were complete, the project team began work on the eclectic design for the eight-story glass and steel structure, a contrast to the classic Georgian stone, brick, and limestone that dominate the rest of the 240-acre campus.

The structure's design has two separate areas united by a single wall, Coates said.

"It's one building, two very distinct sections," he added.

The north block where the concert hall is located is dominated by glass with a gently curved roof. The south block, which houses the studios, suites, rehearsal areas, and support spaces, is a solid rectangle.

The signature features include a glass façade and the staircases that cascade 90 ft. down from the top level, Turczak said.

Another is the concert hall, which the audience will enter via six conical portals. It is clad entirely in red cedar visible through the glass curtain wall.

"When you are walking from the lobby to the concert hall, the feel is that you are inside a glass box and hanging over the valley," he added.

The concert hall's shape is designed to evoke the image of a ship in a bottle, said Dave Gruver, project manager for Turner.

From the inside it is supposed to represent the belly of a violin, Goebel said.

The curtain-wall façade uses a steel framework that barely intrudes on the glass. The frames for the 7.5- by 12-ft. glass panels carry a water-glycol mixture that provides heating for the atrium space outside the concert hall, prevents condensation, and eliminates the need for extensive piping and radiators. The system produces a clean look, Gruver said.

"You're seeing the glass, not seeing the steel," he added.

The south block is vastly different, using typical steel-frame construction with concrete decks, Coates said. It has a unitized aluminum curtain wall with ceramic frit on insulated glass units, which give the façade a milky glass look.

Coates said the building will use 16,000 cu. yd. of concrete, selected for the acoustic mass. It also has 8,000 tons of reinforcing steel and 2,600 tons of structural steel, including 11,000 separate pieces that create its odd shapes and angles.

The center will soon offer RPI a unique interdisciplinary venue, Goebel said.

"The triad of the building is seeing, hearing, and moving in space," he said. "There is a close link between spaces that are good for the senses and good for research."

Key Players

Owner: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y.

Architect: Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners, New York

Architect of Record: Davis Brody Bond, New York

Engineer: Buro Happold Inc., New York

Construction Manager: Turner Construction, New York

Steel: Supermetals Structures, Saint-Romuald, Quebec

Concrete: Jersen Construction Group, Waterford, N.Y.