Performing Arts Centre
– EMPAC, Troy, New York State, USA
2008
Grimshaw
2001 Architecture Competition win
All image credits: Grimshaw
Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute Troy, New York USA RPI_EMPAC_desc_0408 Page 1 of 1 EMPAC is
a cutting-edge experimental performing arts venue currently under construction;
the project was designed by Grimshaw for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
in Troy, New York.
The building is located on a steep hillside at the west edge of the campus,
overlooking Troy and the Hudson valley below. EMPAC will contain a 1,200-seat
concert hall, a 400-seat theatre with flytower, two ‘black box’ studios,
a dance studio, a suite of artist-in-residence workshops, and professional
audio and video recording, editing and production facilities.
A rectangular south wing of the building, containing the more digitally
oriented facilities, shields the atrium and public spaces from summer
solar heat gain. The concert hall, clad entirely in western red cedar,
dominates the north wing of the building and is visible to the outside
through a dramatic 100-foot high glass curtain wall.
EMPAC’s mission is not only to provide an environment conducive to the
generation of innovative digital work, but also to actively change perceptions
about the nature of sound, vision and the human experiential condition.
Its unique program, combining the highest quality venues suitable for
the performance of both traditional and contemporary music, dance, theatre
and visualization, will be unmatched by academic institutions elsewhere
in the world.
New York Architecture
- Manhattan
American Architecture
Contract Value US$140m
Area 19,120 sq m/ 202,000 sq ft Status Under construction
Design Start Date 06/2001 Site Start Date 01/2004
Completion Date 10/2008
Client Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
New York State Buildings
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Buildings / photos for the New York Architecture pages welcome:
info@e-architect.co.uk
EMPAC Troy building:
page - adrian welch / isabelle lomholt