Wyly Theatre photos, Dallas Architecture by REX, OMA United States of America design images
Dee and Charles Wyly Theater : Dallas Performing Arts Center, Texas
New American Auditorium Building design by OMA / REX, Architects
Jan 8, 2011
Wyly Theater wins AIA Honor Award
Rotterdam / New York, January 8th, 2011 – The Dee and Charles Wyly theater in Dallas, designed by REX/OMA, has received the 2011 Honor Award for Architecture from the American Institute of Architects. The AIA jury called the Wyly “a totally new way to investigate the potential of performative experimentation” which has “completely re-choreographed the way in which one experiences a theater.”
The Wyly, part of Dallas’s new AT&T Performing Arts Center, features two unique innovations: an auditorium visible from street, enabled by the tall box-like structure of the building, in which supporting services are stacked above and below the auditorium, rather than encircling it as in a standard theatre configuration. Secondly, the auditorium itself is designed for maximum flexibilty: stage, seating, balconies can be quickly reconfigured depending on the needs of the performance on the night.
The AIA Honor Awards program seeks to “establish a standard of excellent against which all architects can measure performance, and inform the public of the breadth and value of architecture practice.”
Oct 14, 2009
Wyly Theatre Dallas
Photos : Iwan Baan
image from BQ
Wyly Theatre opens in Dallas
Dallas, 14 October 2009 – The Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, a reimagining of a conventional theatre building, with a ground-level performance space and auditorium visible from the outside, opens in Dallas this week. The Wyly Theatre, part of the city’s new AT&T Performing Arts Center, is designed by Joshua Prince-Ramus (partner in charge, now REX) and Rem Koolhaas (founder of OMA).
Unlike a typical theatre, the Wyly accommodates back-of-house and front-of-house areas above and beneath the auditorium rather than wrapped around it, liberating its perimeter – a glass façade with optional blackout blinds – for direct contact with the urban surroundings. Passersby have the chance to glimpse the action inside; the theatre itself, which seats up to 575, can offer views of the city of Dallas as a backdrop.
Rem Koolhaas, who will be giving a lecture in the Wyly Theatre on 15 October at 4pm, commented: “By stacking all facilities necessary for the functioning of a theatre in a single vertical volume, we create a situation where the technologies of the stage define an infinite variety of theatre arrangements, from the completely open to the completely enclosed.”
With 12 storeys clad in distinctive tubular aluminium, the Wyly has a commanding presence on the south side of the AT&T Performing Arts Center complex. The building has a total area of 7,500m2 (80,300 square feet) and includes a cocktail bar, offices, costume shop, and a multipurpose rooftop space. The Wyly uses a state-of-the-art “superfly” tower, able to efficiently move both scenery and seating, facilitating unprecedented flexibility and experimentation in the configuration of a theatre space: proscenium, thrust, traverse, arena, studio, and flat floor arrangements can be set up in less than a day.
Joshua Prince-Ramus and Rem Koolhaas’s design for the Wyly Theatre started in 2004 at OMA’s Rotterdam headquarters, and was subsequently developed in OMA’s New York office. In 2006, Prince-Ramus left OMA to form REX, where he continued to oversee the construction of the Wyly. Since 2006, OMA’s New York office has been headed by OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu, who oversees a range of projects including Cornell University’s Milstein Hall, currently under construction.
Wyly Theater Dallas photos / information from OMA 141009
Location: Wyly, Dallas, Texas
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OMA
OMA is a leading international partnership practicing architecture, urbanism and cultural analysis. The office is led by seven partners – Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, David Gianotten and Managing Partner, Victor van der Chijs – and employs a staff of around 220 of more than 35 nationalities. To accommodate a range of projects worldwide, OMA maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Beijing, and Hong Kong.
OMA-designed buildings currently under construction include the new headquarters for China Central Television – a tower reinvented as a loop – in Beijing; the adjacent Television Cultural Centre; Shenzhen Stock Exchange – China’s equivalent of the NASDAQ exchange for hi-tech industries; Milstein Hall – an extension of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University; a new headquarters for Rothschild Bank in London; Maggie’s Centre, a cancer care facility in Glasgow; and De Rotterdam, the largest building in the Netherlands.
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