HalPAC – Dream it Design it

Halifax Performing Arts Center

HalPAC is a performing arts center that features a large scale theater in the round as well as a black box theater space. Located on the orchestra level are the main box office, coat check, gift shop, and ground floor of the lobby atrium. To keep the theaters running, this level is home to the dressing rooms, wardrobe, wig shop, set shop, staging bay, costume shop, costume storage, and prop storage. This floor also features a reserved level of the subterranean parking structure for patrons. The mezzanine level allows access to additional seating for the theater in the round as well as two more flexible entry points into the black box. This level includes the main lobby, rehearsal hall for resident performers, classical dance studio, ballroom and event space, cafe for intermission refreshments, and an exclusive 5 star restaurant. Also located on this floor is housing for the convenience of performers currently in residency. The balcony level of the building features the third venue of HalPAC, the cascading galleries. These three gallery spaces curve around the black box allowing for captivating views into the main atrium, cafe, costume storage, and the black box itself. This level of the building has an exclusive lobby for patrons of HalPAC. This private lobby offers access to the galleries as well as views into the ballroom and the rehearsal hall to give a sneak peak of what is next on the main stage.

HalPAC is located at a junction in Halifax, NS where the commercial district crosses the tourist route and comes up to campus life located just across the street. The re-interpretation of the landscape through abstract ribbons of structure allows for three different conditions to exist in harmony throughout the site. The undulation of the ribbons creates a hardscape that is a continuation of a visitor’s walk down the historic Citadel’s hill side. The pixilization that occurs on the roofscape invites the public to interpret the surface and details to fit their needs. The mezzanine level of HalPAC acts as a second circulation through the site. This level is first experienced when the public descends down a slight grade and into the shell defined by the ribbon condition of the site. This level offers access to the performance venues as well as everything else HalPAC has to offer. Dynamic views are framed by voids in the mezzanine floor, showing the orchestra level below. The street wall that the Southeast corner of the building creates in a play with solids and voids, makes the program seem to exist as a void in an otherwise solid mass.

Professor: Lonn Combs and Ted Krueger
Software: Rhino, Velux, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign