Brown University Performing Arts Center (PAC) / courtesy of REX
Providence, RI – Brown University’s planned Performing Arts Center (PAC) is designed to inspire innovative new art-making, enable unprecedented artistic collaboration, and serve as a hub for performances.
That singular flexibility, along with a horizontal “clearstory” that slices through the building’s façade at stage level, are among the signature elements of the PAC, as debuted in a set of architectural renderings and animations released by Brown and New York-based architecture firm REX.
The renderings reveal plans for a state-of-the-art main performance hall that can transform into any of five vastly different stage/audience configurations — ranging from a 625-seat symphony orchestra hall, to a 250-seat proscenium theater, to an immersive surround-sound cube for experimental media performance.
Rendering of Brown’s PAC Theater / courtesy of REX
Beyond the main hall, a suite of modern studios, rehearsal spaces, and intimate performance venues will serve as everyday academic resources for students and faculty. Custom-designed for theater, music, and dance, the spaces aim to inspire generations of performing artists to create cutting-edge, original artwork and re-examine well-known works, practices, and traditions.
A transparent slice that intersects the PAC will enable performances, rehearsals, and arts scholarship to extend into the Brown campus and local neighborhood, inviting the community to witness and engage in the creation of art within the building.
Brown University President Christina Paxson says that REX achieved a remarkable design — sophisticated and adaptable to multiple art forms, yet also intimate in scale and feel.
“The Performing Arts Center’s innovative, flexible design will establish the building itself as a deeply integral part of the artistic process,” Paxson said. “It promises to inspire groundbreaking creation, collaboration, and experimentation in ways we can’t even yet imagine.”
The university’s target date for completion is spring 2022.
