Utah State University Manon Caine Russell Kathryn Caine Wanlass Performance HallLogan, UT
The building is a play of geometries with both acoustical and contextual significance. An orthogonal concrete shell with 18-inch thick concrete walls encloses the main performance space whose shape and materials were carefully considered for optimum sound qualities. A contrasting zinc panel-coated entrance pavilion has origami-like folded volumes that suggest a melding of the man-made and the natural – precise architectural geometry that also recalls primordial tectonic forces that formed the surrounding Bear River Mountains. By day triangular skylights angle light into interior spaces; at night the pavilion faces an outdoor piazza and is dramatically lit, highlighting playful splayed columns in a pattern suggesting musical notes.
Sasaki collaborated with Artec Consultants Inc., New York-based theater acousticians, and the octagonal main space is conceived as a "second universe" cut off from outside sound while offering a wide array of "adjustability" depending on the type of musical performance and the number of occupied seats at any given time.
Sasaki's landscape architects conceived an entry precinct with a row of native trees and a series of pea stone fields that lead from one of the main campus portals into the new piazza.
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