The 330,000sq.ft building was a collaboration between Theatre Projects, Barton Myers (design architect), HKS Architects (executive architect) and Baker Barrios (associate architect). It was a project nearly three decades in the making.
Theatre Projects first began planning an arts centre for Orlando in 1985 when city officials hired them to determine whether the city could support such a facility. At the time, it was decided that the city could not accommodate the performing arts centre, but a re-evaluation 10 years later found the city was now ready for the ambitious undertaking.
At the heart of the Dr. Phillips Centre is the 2,700-seat Walt Disney Theatre - a multipurpose theatre, ideally suited to host ballet, drama, musicals, rock concerts, opera, and more. The core of Theatre Projects' design philosophy is the importance of audience-performer intimacy, and even in a 2,700-seat venue, the design team worked to create a dynamic environment.
"We wanted to create an intimacy that you typically only find in smaller theatres," Scott Crossfield, Theatre Projects' theatre designer, said. "We were able to achieve that by breaking the seating into multiple, vertical levels, and wrapping them around the stage.
"When as a performer, you can look up and see the immediate reactions of the audience - and likewise, they can see yours - it creates a dynamic that changes the entire theatregoing experience," Crossfield said. "It's powerful and emotional and impactful, and the architecture is the device we've used to achieve that energy."
The centre's second theatre, the Alexis & Jim Pugh Theatre, offers a flexible and engaging environment, perfect for community theatre groups, smaller touring companies, and student-produced shows.
Theatre Projects led the design of the 299-seat courtyard theatre, which features audience and technical balconies and an adjustable stage - capable of flat floor, thrust, endstage, promenade, and in the round, configurations. The multi-level room is extremely intimate and features no seat further than 35ft from the stage. The room provides a suitable setting not only for theatrical productions, but also for all, parties and galas.
"It's a very flexible space, designed specifically for community groups," Millie Dixon, Theatre Projects' project manager, said, "Knowing that they would be the primary users of the space, we wanted to give them the greatest opportunity to be creative -not just in their own work, but also in how they choose to use the room. The simplicity, ease-of-use, and quick turnover made possible by the theatre will let those groups flourish."
The second stage of the development will include - among other features - the1,700-seat Acoustic Theatre, a multiform theatre able to transform its shape and acoustics to perfectly suit opera, ballet, symphonic music, and non-traditional art forms. According to Pilbrow, "the room will be on par, not only with the world's great opera houses like Oslo or Copenhagen, but also with the best symphony spaces in the world."
(Jim Evans)
