Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
Encyclopedia
The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is a newly inaugurated performing arts center
in downtown
Kansas City
, Missouri
, USA
, at 16th and Broadway near the Power & Light District, the Sprint Center
and the Crossroads Arts District. Its construction was a major part of the ongoing redevelopment of downtown Kansas City.
The Center was created as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Unlike some other major civic construction projects, no taxpayer funds went into its construction. The City of Kansas City, however, built and operates a parking garage at the Center.
It is performance home to the Kansas City Symphony
, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and the Kansas City Ballet
which in the past performed at the Lyric Theatre (Kansas City, Missouri)
, eight blocks north of the center.
-style Muriel Kauffman Theatre and 1,600-seat concert Helzberg Hall. The Kauffman Center covers 13 acres (52,609.2 m²), including landscaped grounds over a 1,000-space underground parking garage. The technical requirements and exacting standards required of a facility like the Kauffman Center made it one of the most complex structures in the world to design and build. The cost of the project was approximately $413 million, including a $40 million operating endowment.
Moshe Safdie
, acoustician
Yasuhisa Toyota
, theater consultant Richard Pilbrow
, and engineering firm Arup
. Local firm BNIM
was the executive architect. Lead contractor was J.E. Dunn Construction Group
of Kansas City.
of light cables, metal and glass structure toward the South. The tensile forces
of the suspended glass roof of the foyer are counteracted by a series of cables tying down the structure to anchors at the entrance terrace. The curved, segmented northern walls are sheathed with stainless steel and punctuated by perpendicular, acid-etched, limestone-colored, pre-cast concrete walls. The theater facades are sheathed with beech
wood panels forming continuous, curved, stacked balconies. The various lounges form sculptural shapes visible under the glass foyer structure.
The two venues are joined by the Brandmeyer Great Hall with an expansive view to the south. The hall serves as a lobby for patrons on performance nights and is also available for special events.
Performing arts center
Performing arts center, often abbreviated PAC, is used to refer to* A multi-use performance space that is intended for use by various types of the performing arts, including dance, music and theatre....
in downtown
Downtown Kansas City
Downtown Kansas City is the central business district of Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. It is located between the Missouri River in the north, to 31st Street in the south; and from the Kansas–Missouri state line east to Troost Avenue as defined by officials of the...
Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, at 16th and Broadway near the Power & Light District, the Sprint Center
Sprint Center
Sprint Center is a large, multi-use indoor arena in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The building is located at 14th Street and Grand Boulevard, on the east side of the Power & Light District...
and the Crossroads Arts District. Its construction was a major part of the ongoing redevelopment of downtown Kansas City.
The Center was created as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Unlike some other major civic construction projects, no taxpayer funds went into its construction. The City of Kansas City, however, built and operates a parking garage at the Center.
It is performance home to the Kansas City Symphony
Kansas City Symphony
The Kansas City Symphony is a United States symphony orchestra based in Kansas City, Missouri. The current music director is conductor Michael Stern. The current home of the Symphony is the Lyric Theatre, located in Downtown Kansas City on 11th Street between Wyandotte and Central Streets...
, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and the Kansas City Ballet
Kansas City Ballet
Founded in 1957, Kansas City Ballet is a 25-member professional ballet company under the direction of Artistic Director William Whitener and Executive Director Jeffrey J. Bentley. Kansas City Ballet performs three mixed repertory seasons per year as well as the ever-popular Nutcracker...
which in the past performed at the Lyric Theatre (Kansas City, Missouri)
Lyric Theatre (Kansas City, Missouri)
The Lyric Theatre is a theatre in Kansas City, Missouri.The four and half-story structure designed by Owen Saylor and Payson opened on December 18, 1926 as the Ararat Shrine Temple. It cost the Shriners $1 million and had a seating capacity of 3,000...
, eight blocks north of the center.
Construction
Ground was broken on October 6, 2006, and the Kauffman Center held its grand opening on September 16, 17 and 18, 2011. The Center itself is an approximately 285000 sqfoot facility with two sophisticated performance venues: the 1,800-seat prosceniumProscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...
-style Muriel Kauffman Theatre and 1,600-seat concert Helzberg Hall. The Kauffman Center covers 13 acres (52,609.2 m²), including landscaped grounds over a 1,000-space underground parking garage. The technical requirements and exacting standards required of a facility like the Kauffman Center made it one of the most complex structures in the world to design and build. The cost of the project was approximately $413 million, including a $40 million operating endowment.
Designers and Builder
The Kauffman Center was designed by lead architectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Moshe Safdie
Moshe Safdie
Moshe Safdie, CC, FAIA is an architect, urban designer, educator, theorist, and author. Born in the city of Haifa, then Palestine and now Israel, he moved with his family to Montreal, Canada, when he was 15 years old.-Career:...
, acoustician
Architectural acoustics
Architectural acoustics is the science of noise control within buildings. The first application of architectural acoustics was in the design of opera houses and then concert halls. More widely, noise suppression is critical in the design of multi-unit dwellings and business premises that generate...
Yasuhisa Toyota
Yasuhisa Toyota
is an acoustician who has been chief acoustician for over 50 projects worldwide, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Bard College Performing Arts Center in New York, and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City. He is the company director and U.S...
, theater consultant Richard Pilbrow
Richard Pilbrow
Richard Pilbrow is an internationally renowned stage lighting designer, author, theatre consultant, and theatrical producer, film producer and television producer...
, and engineering firm Arup
Arup
Arup is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom which provides engineering, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of the built environment. The firm is present in Africa, the Americas, Australasia, East Asia, Europe and the...
. Local firm BNIM
BNIM
BNIM is an architecture and design firm founded in 1970 in Kansas City, Missouri. With offices in Kansas City, Houston, Texas; Des Moines, Iowa; Los Angeles, California, and San Diego, California, the firm has nearly 100 design professionals and support staff.BNIM has completed many significant...
was the executive architect. Lead contractor was J.E. Dunn Construction Group
J.E. Dunn Construction Group
J. E. Dunn Construction Group is a privately owned construction company in the United States. In 2011, the company was ranked 25th in Engineering News-Records top 400 contractors; Forbes Magazine reported it was the 186th largest Private company in the nation in 2010.J.E. Dunn has its headquarters...
of Kansas City.
Architecture
The structure of the Kauffman Center is formed by a series of undulating vertical segments of a circle, forming the northern container of the Muriel Kauffman Theatre's backstage, and Helzberg Hall. They form an ascending, segmented, gently curving, crown to the building. From the crest, the roof descends in a curve following the geometry of a torusTorus
In geometry, a torus is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three dimensional space about an axis coplanar with the circle...
of light cables, metal and glass structure toward the South. The tensile forces
Tensile strength
Ultimate tensile strength , often shortened to tensile strength or ultimate strength, is the maximum stress that a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled before necking, which is when the specimen's cross-section starts to significantly contract...
of the suspended glass roof of the foyer are counteracted by a series of cables tying down the structure to anchors at the entrance terrace. The curved, segmented northern walls are sheathed with stainless steel and punctuated by perpendicular, acid-etched, limestone-colored, pre-cast concrete walls. The theater facades are sheathed with beech
Beech
Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...
wood panels forming continuous, curved, stacked balconies. The various lounges form sculptural shapes visible under the glass foyer structure.
Performance Facilities
The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts houses two performance halls:- The Muriel Kauffman Theatre is an 1,800-seat prosceniumProsceniumA proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...
-style theater for general theatrical performances, balletBalletBallet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
and operaOperaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
.
- The Helzberg Hall is a 1,600-seat concert hall. It features vineyard-style seating on all four sides of the stage. It also contains a 75-stop, 102-rank pipe organPipe organThe pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
built by the firm Casavant FrèresCasavant FrèresCasavant Frères is a prominent Canadian company in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, which has been building fine pipe organs since 1879. As of 2008, they have produced over 3800 organs.- Company history :...
in Saint-HyacintheSaint-Hyacinthe, QuebecSaint-Hyacinthe is a city in southwestern Quebec east of Montreal on the Yamaska River. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 55,823. The city is located in Les Maskoutains Regional County Municipality of the Montérégie region, and is traversed by the Yamaska River which flows...
, QuebecQuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
The two venues are joined by the Brandmeyer Great Hall with an expansive view to the south. The hall serves as a lobby for patrons on performance nights and is also available for special events.