commentCornerstone Arts Center
Predock’s Flexible Arts Center Suits College's Boundary-Breaking Style
A biologist, musician, and a playwright enter a classroom: this isn’t the setup for a joke, but rather the essential pedagogy of Colorado College. This small liberal arts school, located in Colorado Springs, operates on a so-called block plan, in which students enroll in just one course every three-and-a-half weeks. The classes are interdisciplinary and intense, taught by a tag team of three or four professors from different departments and culminating in a final project that weaves all their subjects together.
Antoine Predock’s new Cornerstone Arts Center at Colorado College is located within sight of Colorado’s famed Pikes Peak; the predominantly copper-clad structure appears as a geologically inspired pyramid shape (top). A central atrium features amphitheater seating and is ringed by a catwalk that can be turned over to fine arts exhibitions (above).
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The college’s forthcoming Cornerstone Arts Center, the first building to unify all arts programs under one roof, manifests its teaching philosophy in the form of highly flexible architecture. The $33 million, 73,300-square-foot structure was conceived in 1996, when faculty attended a dance-mystery-improv performance created by students representing a wide range of majors in the liberal arts and performance. Two years later, Colorado College retained Antoine Predock, FAIA, to create a space that would spark further collaborations.
Predock’s design broke ground in May 2006. Located within sight of Colorado’s famed Pikes Peak, the predominantly copper-clad structure appears as a geologically inspired pyramid shape that narrows toward the northern part of the site; smaller rectilinear volumes containing classrooms, a black box theater, and a collaborative gallery emerge from the copper shell at this northern end, stepping down toward the grade.
To accommodate a range of arts, the interior’s highlights include a 433-seat auditorium, sound stage, and screening room, although every room can sustain at least three functions. The central atrium, for example, features amphitheater seating and is ringed by a catwalk that can be turned over to fine arts exhibitions. Classrooms and offices are equally suited to history seminars or dance troupes, thanks to easily reconfigurable partitions and a technological infrastructure that professors and visiting artists can adapt to their varying needs.
The Cornerstone Art Center is due to open this October, a little more than a year after Denver-based Tryba Architects completed an expansion to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, which is located just across the street.
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