Providence, RI – Shawmut Design and Construction joined leaders from Brown University on Oct. 21 to celebrate the completion of The Lindemann Performing Arts Center (The Lindemann) in Providence.
Located centrally in Brown’s Perelman Arts District, the 101,000sf building, designed by REX/Joshua Ramus and managed by the Brown Arts Institute (BAI), offers a radical, one-of-a-kind approach to spatial, acoustic, and technical flexibility. Interweaving innovative design, year-round arts programming, and gathering and rehearsal spaces, The Lindemann aims to increase accessibility to cutting edge artistic resources to further cultivate a community committed to the arts.
The Lindemann’s Main Performance Hall is a reconfigurable space. Incorporating a new performance typology, all six surfaces of the hall (floor, ceiling, and four walls) modulate physically and/or acoustically through automated and manually assisted performance equipment to create five radically different stage-audience configurations – experimental media, recital, end-stage, orchestra, and flat floor – and an array of potential secondary modes. The equipment installed to make such transformations includes five suspended, four-tier seating gantries, 40 adjustable acoustic reflector panels, seven motorized utility battens, three lighting bridges, two stage lifts, three orchestra platform lifts, six telescoping orchestra risers, three seating wagon lifts, a three-unit retractable seating system, five seating wagons, a ring of deployable acoustic curtains, and a complete technical gridiron 55 feet above the floor.
The Lindemann’s fluted aluminum facade is intersected by a stage-level “clearstory” that reveals the interior of the main floor in every direction, providing views of “Infinite Composition,” a site-specific, dynamic light installation by artist Leo Villareal. One story up from the street, the clearstory cantilevers on three sides of the building, creating sheltered outdoor spaces for events, performances, and gatherings, while inside the building it houses the Nelson Atwater Lobby, a promenade with direct views to the main hall, and an assembly area for performers that can serve as a more intimate lobby.
Below street level are three spaces designed for music, theater, and dance. Each includes a control room and customizable equipment, allowing the rooms to function as studios, classrooms, and performance spaces.
