kauffman centre for the performing arts

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KAUFFMAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

GUIDED BY JYOTI GIDWIR

SUBMITTED PRASEN SABALE FINAL YEAR PART 2

INTRODUCTION 

The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is a major new center for music, opera,

theater, and dance. Designed by Moshe Safdie, the Kauffman Center presents a wide range of entertainers and performers from around the world, and serves as the performance home of three of the region’s leading performing arts organizations— Kansas City Ballet, Kansas City Symphony, and Lyric Opera of Kansas City. 

The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts  is a performing arts center in downtown Kansas

City, Missouri, USA, at 16th and Broadway, near the Power & Light District, the Sprint Center and the Crossroads Arts District. Its construction was a major part of the ongoing redevelopment of downtown Kansas City. the Kauffman Center’s mission is “to enrich the lives of communities throughout the region, country and world by offering extraordinary and diverse performing arts experiences”.The Kauffman Center seeks to fulfill this mission by offering a wide selection of performances, and also by offering specific programs to connect with the youth in the Kansas City area. 

Safdie presented his plan in May of 2002, and four years later, on October 6, 2006, ground was broken for what had now been officially named the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. 

PLANNING & CIRCULATION The technical requirements and exacting standards required of a facility like the Kauffman Center made it one of the most complex structures in the world to design and build The building, which took nearly five years to complete, contains 40,000 square feet of glass, 25,000 cubic yards of concrete, and 27 steel cables The main lobby, Brandmeyer Great Hall, is built of a glass ceiling and sloping glass walls that provide a panoramic view of Kansas City to the south.  The main lobby, Brandmeyer Great Hall, is built of a glass ceiling and sloping glass walls that provide a panoramic view of Kansas City to the south.  The main lobby, Brandmeyer Great Hall, is built of a glass ceiling and sloping glass walls that provide a panoramic view of Kansas City to the south. The twenty-seven steel cables on the south façade are anchored in embeds that weigh approximately one and a half tons, and the embeds are an extension of the foundation and bedrock beneath the building. 

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PLANNING & CIRCULATION When the steel cables were pulled taut during the construction process, the entire steel structure shifted two to six inches to the south. This tensioning provides stability to the structure and keeps the glass lobby securely in place. The Kauffman Center covers 13 acres (53,000 m2), including landscaped grounds over the 1,000-space, city-owned Arts District Garage The cost of the project was approximately $413 million, which includes both a $40 million operating endowment and the city’s $47 million construction of the parking garage.  The Kauffman Center was designed by lead architect Moshe Safdie, acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, theater consultant Richard Pilbrow, and engineering firm Arup. Local firm BNIM was the associate architect. Lead contractor was J.E. Dunn Construction Group of Kansas City 

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The center’s exterior consists of two symmetrical half shells of vertical, concentric arches that open toward the south. Each shell houses one acoustically independent performance venue, although the 

ARCHITECTURE The south façade of the Center is made entirely of glass. Safdie describes the lobby as “an expansive glazed porch contained by a glass tent-like structure". For those inside Brandmeyer Great Hall, the glass puts Kansas City on display; for those on the outside, the Kauffman Center becomes like a terrarium, revealing the thousands of attendees backlit against the white interior The south façade of the Center is made entirely of glass. Safdie describes the lobby as “an expansive glazed porch contained by a glass tent-like structure“ The 285,000-square foot (26,500 m2) Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts houses two sophisticated performance halls: Muriel Kauffman Theatre and Helzberg Hall. The venues share backstage space that runs the entire length of the Kauffman Center. There are dressing rooms that can accommodate more than 250 performers, along with 11 rehearsal rooms. The Kauffman Center joins the Lincoln Center as another of the few performing arts centers in the country to have two (or more) performance venues in one building. Another example is the Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C. •

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Muriel Kauffman Theatre This is an 1,800-seat theater whose design was inspired by the great European opera houses. With multiple balconies and box seating on either side of the theater, attendees are much closer to the stage than in most other auditorium-type venues. The balconies and boxes, which feature seats covered in various shades of red, also boast balustrades that glimmer with gold lighting and dim when the performance begins. The undulating walls of the theatre are painted with a brightly colored mural, designed and carried out by students at the Kansas City Art Institute, under the guidance of Moshe Safdie. With a 5,000square-foot stage, an orchestra pit that can house up to 90 musicians, and a 74-foot tall fly tower, Muriel’s Theatre is the performance home of the Kansas City Ballet and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, as well as the site of many other theatrical, musical, and dance productions.  Another feature of the Muriel Kauffman Theatre is the installation of the Figaro Simultext Seatback System, which displays subtitles in various languages on the backs of chairs, as opposed to most other opera houses that require the audience to look above the stage for opera translations 

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Helzberg Hall This is a 1,600-seat, oval-shaped concert hall, and it is the performance home to the Kansas City Symphony. Because the stage extends into approximately one-third of the space, even the seat farthest from the stage is a mere 100 feet away. Helzberg Hall features vineyard-style seating on all four sides of the stage, adding to the intimate feel of the space.  Within the stage itself are motorized risers, which can either lie flat or rise into a tier, depending on the needs of the performance. Quebec, Canada. Fewer than 10 percent of the 5,548 pipes are visible to those in the hall. The largest pipe is 32 feet tall and weighs approximately 960 pounds. 

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Brandmeyer Great Hall

The two venues noted above are linked by the Great Hall, which features an expansive view of the Kansas City skyline to the south. It serves as a lobby for patrons on performance nights and is also available for

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The halls are served by a series of access balconies fronting on the Brandmeyer Great Hall, forming two conical stacked rings of white plaster. People mingling before and after performances and intermissions are theatrically visible to one another. Thus, the great hall with its surrounding balconies is a counterpoint to the theaters within.

The 1,800-seat Muriel Kauffman Theatre is designed to be visually striking, yet retain an intimate experience for both audiences and performers. Audiences are seated around the stage in a variation on the traditional horseshoe configuration, bringing them closer to the performers than in auditorium-style venues Those arches, viewed from behind, are actually symmetrical, resembling the hundreds of fountains that are this city’s joy  perfectly designed ACOUSTICS which makes performances pleasant due to the quality of sound Each space contains dramatic eye- and ear- catching design that combines sophisticated aesthetics, acoustics and technology with the intimacy of a smaller space and the comforts of home Designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie, the building’s most distinctive features are the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Theatre, Helzberg Hall, Brandmeyer Great Hall, its acoustical design and accessibility.