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Winspear Opera House, Dallas, Architecture, Images, United States of
America
Texas Building, USA : Architecture Information
Key New American Building Development in United States of America
Date: 2008-09
Architect: Foster + Partners
15 Oct 2009
Foster + Partners' Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House opens in Dallas today

photo : Tim Hursley
Part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, the new Margot and Bill
Winspear Opera House in Dallas redefines the essence of an opera house
for the twenty first century, breaking down barriers to make opera
more accessible for a wider audience.

photo : Nigel Young_Foster+Partners
Responding to the Dallas climate, a generous solar canopy extends
from the building, revealing below a fully glazed sixty foot high
lobby. Beneath the canopy, a shaded pedestrian plaza creates a major
new public space for Dallas.

photos : Iwan Baan
Around the Opera House itself, angled off-grid under the canopy, there
is the Annette Strauss Artists Square, with its outdoor performance
space for an audience of 5000, a smaller outdoor performance space
with a café terrace and the main entrance to the opera house
with access to the car park below.

photos : Iwan Baan
Organisationally, the Winspear creates a transparent, publicly welcoming
series of lobby spaces, which wrap around the rich red glass drum
of the 2,200-seat auditorium. Entered beneath a lower canopy, the
transition from the Grand Plaza through the foyer into the auditorium
is designed to heighten the drama of attending a performance.

photos : Iwan Baan
Vertical sliding glass panels moving the full length of the east façade
allow the building with its café and restaurant to be fully
opened up. The grand staircase, flowing from one side to the other
around the drum, links all the lobby spaces. Deep gouges in the drum
itself allow the audience to move horizontally at each of the balcony
levels.

photos : Iwan Baan
The auditorium creates a sense of intimacy with the performers. Working
with Theatre Projects, a horseshoe plan combined with the dramatic
vertical stacking of its seating balconies ensure that the audience
is as close as possible to the stage. Intimacy is further reinforced
by emphasising the balcony fronts, with their white gold finish highlighted
against the rich dark red interior. To heighten the sense of drama,
there is a chandelier that ascends into the ceiling of the auditorium
with its two giant rings and central dome at the beginning of the
performance. To complete the auditorium, the distinguished Argentinean
artist Guillermo Quintero has designed a mesmerising curtain for the
stage.

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Annette Strauss Artist Square, Dallas
2008-
Foster + Partners
Texan buildings : Dallas
Texan buildings : Fort Worth
Texas Architecture
American Buildings by Foster + Partners - Selection:
Smithsonian Institution
Washington DC

photo: Nigel Young / Foster + Partners
Smithsonian Institute
Museum of Fine Arts
Boston, Massachussetts

photo from the architect
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Spaceport America
New Mexico

picture : Foster + Partners
American Spaceport
Hearst Tower
New York

photo: Andrew McRae
Hearst Tower New York

World Architecture : e-architect
- key buildings across the globe
Comments / photos for the Dallas Opera House Architecture page welcome:
info@e-architect.co.uk
Winspear Opera House : page - adrian welch
/ isabelle lomholt |
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