Drama, dance, music, film and art come together at the Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo.According to Graham Hogan, senior associate at Antoine Predock Architect PC, Albuquerque, N.M.,the intent was to create a facility where all of the different departments can cross pollinate, visually eavesdrop on each other, and provide a stimulating environment where students can engage in all aspects of the arts.
Pursuing LEED Gold certification, construction on the art center started in May 2006 and was complete in March 2008. The 72,419-square-foot (6,728-m2) facility houses a black box theatre, art gallery, film studio,music room, screening room, auditorium, shops, classrooms and faculty offices, arranged around a central main space at the heart of the art center.
“All of these spaces open to this informal main space that is ringed by catwalks as the building’s circulation, and rigged with lighting and an internal amphitheatre for performances, fabrication of stage sets and classroom lectures, as well as impromptu gathering, dialog and performance,” Hogan said.
The art center’s internal main space and 400-seat auditorium is clad in approximately 3,800 square feet (353 m2) of flat-seam copper skin from FCM Custom Metals Inc., Lee’s Summit, Mo.
“Due to the black-box nature of an auditorium,the copper fully contains the theatre and transitions to open to slotted clerestory windows as it extends out over the main space, allowing natural light deep into the interior and animating the diurnal passage of the day,” Hogan said.
Located at the base of Pike’s Peak and the foothills of the Rockies, the art center building is influenced by the tectonic uplift of the region,according to Hogan. “The facetted copper cladding was inspired by the upheaval and local color of nearby Garden of the Gods and formations common throughout the area. Drawing from natural colors found throughout the region anchors the art center to its site. The copper captures different seasonal and daily moods, and will slowly darken and age with the building over time.
Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colo.
Award: 2009 North American Copper in Architecture Award for New Construction
Architect: Antoine Predock Architect PC, Albuquerque, N.M.
Executive architect: Anderson Mason Dale Architects, Denver
Sheet metal contractor: A2MG Inc., Blue Springs, Mo.
Copper: FCM Custom Metals Inc., Lee’s Summit, Mo.,
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