Ferguson Center for the Arts
Newport News, Va.
Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company / Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
Colonnade helps to transform an old high school into a new theater complex
In the decade since it opened, Christopher Newport University has grown into a liberal arts institution with a student body of nearly 5,000—and a campus full of world-class architecture. It desired a performing arts center that would have a major impact on students’ educational experience and on the arts community in the surrounding Newport News, Va., metropolitan region—an area, home to 1.6 million people, that’s known more for its military installations than the arts. By attracting major performers to Christopher Newport’s campus, the Ferguson Center for the Arts enriches cultural experiences for all.
The arts center included several major components: a 1,700-seat multipurpose proscenium theater and concert hall for large productions; a 440-seat proscenium for professional and student music and theater productions; a 150-seat studio theater with a moveable stage and seats; lobbies that also serve as banquet spaces for special events; and educational spaces such as sound-isolated music practice rooms, set design studios, lighting labs, costume shops, dance studios, classrooms, and faculty offices.
In addition to balancing a full program, the architectural team’s main design challenge was integrating a 1950s-era high school building into the heart of the new facility. Their solution was to house classrooms and support spaces within the former high school, adding new theaters on either end of the building, and then linking the entire complex with a sweeping colonnade.
Monumental in scale, the arched colonnade was simple and economical in construction. Contractors used a single casting form to create all of the vertical elements, and a second form for all of the roof panels. Although the form is repeated over and over again, it appears ever-changing as sunlight reflects on curved surfaces and casts shadows through the arched openings. A small amphitheater, formed by the colonnade and the curve of the lobby walls, provides an outdoor performance venue. On performance nights, lights glow within a glass stair tower and lobby clerestory over the main, 1,700-seat theater, forming a cultural beacon for the surrounding area.
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Formal name of Project:
Ferguson Center for the Arts
Location:
Newport News, Va.
Gross square footage:
249,750 sq. ft.
Total project cost:
$54 million
Owner:
Christopher Newport University
Architect:
Phase 1 - Theater and Amphitheater design team:
Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company
120 Atlantic Street
Norfolk, VA 23510
757-321-9600 tel.
757-321-9601 fax
www.hewv.com
  
S. Michael Evans, FAIA, Ted Porter, AIA, Nancy Wroten, AIA
Phase 2 - Theater and Colonnade design team:
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
88 Pine Street
New York, NY 10005
212-751-3122 tel.
212-872-4041 fax
www.pcf-p.com
Henry Cobb, FAIA
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