At an impressive 118,000 square feet,
Brown University’s Lindemann Performing Arts Center, slated for a public opening this October, has a large presence on the university’s College Hill campus.
Coupled with its size, the building’s standout design makes it all but impossible to compare the center to its structural neighbors. While some have dubbed its design as a complimentary “radical approach,” others have taken issue with its façade’s “white box” style appearance.
“There will always be critics when you have strong, well-conceived and well-executed architectural projects that don’t match identically to [surrounding buildings],” said Craig Barton, university architect. “We understand the criticism and hope that [critics], over the course of time, will come to see the building as we see it.”
The center’s grand opening on Oct. 21 will mark the culmination of the building’s five-year road from concept to completion.
It is not, however, the conclusion of new buildings, renovations and expansions supported by Brown’s strategic plan, “Building on Distinction: A New Plan for Brown.”
For more than a decade, the university has had multiple capital projects in various stages of design and construction, with nine completed in the last three years and three large-scale constructions on its active projects list.
“These buildings really reflect the leadership’s priorities and it’s exciting for these resources to be channeled into these spaces,” said Avery Willis Hoffman, artistic director of the Brown Arts Institute.
Projects are largely located on Brown’s College Hill campus.
In addition to the Lindemann PAC, the Brook Street residence halls should be open to welcome students when classes resume for the fall 2023 semester. Renovations and additions to the Churchill House, home to Brown’s Department of Africana Studies, are also slated to be finished this fall.
In early June, the university announced plans for a 76,000-square-foot indoor practice facility within its athletic complex that would replace an outdoor practice field. Architect selection is underway, and the university hopes to begin construction in summer 2024.
Brown’s strategic plan also calls for development with the Jewelry District, both because of limited space on campus for new construction and to contribute to Providence’s economic and cultural environments. A planned 300,000-square-foot integrated life sciences building was recently announced.
Barton and others close to the project said the Lindemann PAC was designed to fill a long-standing campus need for a building meant to serve as an artistic incubator and maker space.
“My favorite part of the building is yet to be proven,” said Joshua Ramos, founding principal at REX, the New York-based architectural firm that designed the Lindemann PAC. “If the building does what we hope it will, which is to support this dynamism and creative explosion that Brown is instigating … I’m hoping that’s what really happens.”
Spanning approximately two years, the design process, an “integrated project delivery method,” began with REX’s selection for its experience designing buildings with “hybridity” elements, Barton said.
Amongst other architecturally significant points of interest, the Lindemann PAC features a modulated main hall that allows for reconfiguration of spatial, acoustic and technical needs suited to various artistical needs.
Providing the correct lighting for a facility that would house many different purposes that had vastly differing lighting needs, Barton said, was a consideration in design, as was what material would best accommodate the building’s exterior scale needs.
“Brick wasn’t an option,” Barton said. “The [REX] team did a really clever and thoughtful job.”
REX is a boutique firm with expertise in constructing reconfigurable buildings.
“We wanted to make a building that produced extraordinary work and extraordinary research. It’s important to emphasize that we still wanted to make sure it was beautiful,” Ramos said.
Hoffman said the building was needed to create a space where artists of various concentrations and creative pursuits could coexist, collaborate and produce work that would spur Brown’s efforts to position itself as a leader in artistic performance and other related endeavors.
Other building features at Lindemann include three smaller performance spaces, practice rooms, front- and back-of-house spaces, as well as an outdoor communal space.
Hoffman said the center’s inaugural performance series – there won’t be traditionally scheduled seasons – will run from October 2023 through December 2024. She said this series, “Ignite,” reflects the “layers of our making on campus and in Providence.”
“The goal of ‘Ignite’ is that it is collaborative and interdisciplinary,” Hoffman said. “The focus is about art as a social impact … and inviting [people] to think about the impact of the arts and how we can support that way of thinking.”
This is the kind of movement Ramos is talking about regarding his vision for the center.
“As an architect, we want our buildings to be beautiful, we want them to be iconic. If you try to make an icon, you’re going to fail,” he said. “The best way to make an iconic building is to make a building that empowers its artist to make iconic art.”
