Enter the Arts
The magazine Wine Spectator wrote that Robert Mondavi remains the single greatest influence on modern California wine. It’s fitting then that his name appears on the building designed to be the greatest influence on the University of California’s Davis campus. The $54.3 million Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts-toward which the wine maker donated $10 million-anchors the university’s new one-acre entry park, the foundation of a new precinct the school built to give the Davis, Calif., campus a new image and identity.
Multiple Viewpoints
The Portland, Ore., architecture firm BOORA Architects Inc. describes the 104,000-square-foot Mondavi Center as a sculptural object set within the landscape-a landscape that changes the building’s appearance as you move around the center. Like a good wine, the building slowly reveals multiple layers.
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PROJECT DATA Architect: BOORA Architects Inc. |
To the south, the center faces the I-80 freeway and is clearly visible to highway traffic; with its glass façade brightly lit from within, the building acts as a beacon for the campus. A new entry road connects the campus to the freeway, with the Mondavi Center sitting adjacent to the road, giving visitors their first glimpse of the school and setting the tone for the rest of the campus. The previous entry road, Old Davis Road, was turned into a pedestrian and bicycle path connecting the center with the rest of the campus, and giving students and faculty their own connection to the facility.
The pedestrian and bike path leads to an arboretum on the facility’s north side with a student and faculty entrance at the center’s northeast corner. The building’s campus-facing north side is architecturally more informal and smaller in scale. An exterior courtyard connecting to the Studio Theater-the smaller of the facility’s two main performing arenas-extends into the arboretum and can be used as a performing space. Plenty of seating and bike parking is included to attract and encourage student use.
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| The building’s south side faces the highway, giving commuters their first glimpse of the new performing arts center. The fly tower and the audience chamber are clad in different sandstone because architects wanted them to read as different elements. PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Goldberg/Esto |
The building’s two main entrances are located on the east façade, with an enormous trellis canopy providing shelter for the lobby entries and for the multiple balconies and terraces extending out from the building. One entrance serves the 1,800-seat Jackson Hall while the other serves the 250-seat Studio Theater. Situated between the two entrances is a sculptural structure the architects refer to as the Egg-influenced by the Robert Arneson sculptures installed throughout the UCD campus. The three-story Egg houses the box office on the first floor, the Founder’s Room on the second floor, and a viewing terrace on the third floor.
The center’s west side is probably its most versatile. In addition to loading docks, service entrances, and the performer’s entrance, a private Artists Courtyard is located here, connected to the Green Room and serving as the performer’s rehearsal and relaxation space. The courtyard converts to a reception courtyard should the performing company chose to host gatherings where performers mingle with audience members and other guests. The courtyard also connects to the two-story administration building, a freestanding, 9,000-square-foot facility where the center’s business offices are located and its volunteer efforts are coordinated.
Building Performance
Located about 45 minutes from Napa’s wine-growing valley, the Mondavi Center’s construction is sustainable and environmentally sensitive, while also responsive to acoustical conditions required by a state-of-the-art performing arts center.
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| During the day, a large trellis shades the glass-walled lobby. At night, bright lights illuminate the glass façade, acting as a beacon for the campus. The sculptural Egg structure is visible on the right. PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Goldberg/Esto |
The building is sited on an east/west axis for optimum solar orientation and all glass on the center’s east, west, and south sides are shaded with external metal sunscreens based on computer-generated solar models. The largest of these screens-all of which are architectural elements-is the white steel trellis that shelters the lobby entrances and balconies. Abundant glazing and skylights are used in this warm, Central California region to harvest as much natural light as possible.
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| The 1,800-seat Jackson Hall is designed with state-of-the-art acoustics, including a special HVAC system, reconfigurable stage setup, angled wall panels, and zoned seating. PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Goldberg/Esto |
The Mondavi Center uses double-wall and double-ceiling construction for acoustical purposes, as well as for passive cooling. The two feet of hollow airspace between the outside and inside walls, and airspaces underneath the floor and above the ceiling creates a sound-isolating box-within-a-box.
The sound isolation is especially important considering the building’s proximity to the freeway and its location only 600 feet from railroad tracks. The tracks, which run beyond the parking lot on the building’s south side, were of much greater concern than highway traffic because trains cause massive vibration. Had the tracks run any closer to the building, the architects say it would have been a much bigger problem.
Within Jackson Hall, the hollow airspaces provide room for HVAC ducts underneath the various seating levels so conditioned air is introduced where audience members sit and not at the ceiling level where hot theatrical lighting is installed. The system, called displacement ventilation, allows outside air-drawn from the building’s cooler north side-to be introduced into the theater and chilled to an energy-efficient 68 degrees F, instead of the more conventional, super-chilled 55 degrees F. The architects explain that the system relies on the natural convection of people to push the stale warm air to a higher level-because air above 6 feet is not mixed, about half the heat gain from people and nearly all the lighting heat gain is convected out of the space before it causes a temperature gain within the audience zone.
The introduction of air at floor level also helps create a quiet environment because high-velocity fans are not used to blow the air down from the ceiling. Air is instead introduced using quieter, low-velocity fan motors.
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| A view from backstage, past the rigging and stage lighting, reveals the Studio Theater to be a multi-purpose performance space. Performances, lectures, or other events can be viewed by as many as 250 audience members. PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Goldberg/Esto |
Additional sustainable features include light-colored, heat-absorbing slate and natural Indian sandstone, the latter used as an architectural finish inside and outside the building-and the use of exterior materials with recycled content. Environmentally-sensitive interior materials include bamboo flooring in Jackson Hall and decorative wood beans built with reclaimed Douglas fir salvaged from the bottom of fresh water lakes in British Columbia, Canada. Paint, wood sealer, and adhesives are all non-toxic and low-volatile organic compounds.
Stage Presence
The center’s two main performing spaces are designed to host performers ranging from Yo Yo Ma to guest lecturers to the UC Davis music, theatre, and dance departments.
Jackson Hall was designed with seating clusters so the large space feels comfortable with an intimate audience of 100 or with a full house of 1,800 people. Three seating levels-the orchestra and two tiers-position the audience close to the stage, with the farthest seat only 104 feet from the stage, the architects say. They explain that within each level, there are boxes that wrap the audience along the sidewalls, narrowing toward the stage and thus decreasing the room’s scale. Further separation exists on the orchestra level, where seats are broken down into five zones.
Additional adjustments are made with the stage, where the orchestra shell is situated on air casters that move the unit away from the stage as opposed to pulling it up into the fly loft. The air caster system, first developed for the airline industry, closes off the back and keeps sound from traveling up to the fly loft for better acoustics. The proscenium-the part of the stage in front of the curtain-also is adjustable and can be reconfigured to create large or small "picture frames" through which the audience views the production.
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PRODUCT DATA Acoustical Ceilings: Armstrong World Industries |
Acoustics are aided not only by the special HVAC system mentioned earlier, but also by acoustical curtains that "tune" spaces for a single spoken voice or for a large concert. Sandstone wall panels are textured and angled to better reflect sound, while wood panels and plaster ceilings are curved around a 20-foot radius to intercept and redistribute sound waves throughout the theater.
The smaller Studio Theater also is designed to accommodate different size crowds, but its maximum capacity is 250 people. All staging and seating areas are adjustable, in keeping with the architects’ intentions of creating a flexible room that accommodates everything from rehearsals to performances to other school and community programs. A sprung wood floor and mirrored walls are installed to accommodate dancers. Another wall is almost entirely glass and looks out over the arboretum courtyard. As with Jackson Hall, the space is engineered for acoustics with special curtains, angled wall panels, and faceted window glass.
A second set of dressing rooms, food service, and storage areas serve the Studio Theater, which is separate enough from Jackson Hall that the two spaces can simultaneously host performances.
First Year Production
The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts opened on schedule in October 2002, and while still in its first season, the building appears ready to influence the UC Davis campus’s look, feel, and artistic identity for years to come. Like a fine wine, it’ll get even better with age.