Located in Eau Claire, Wis., the new $51 million state-of-the-art Pablo Center at the Confluence replaces the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s Kjer Theater and the local State Theatre. The new arts center provides much needed rehearsal, teaching and support space for the university’s theater program, and a significantly larger performance venue for its nationally renowned music program. It will also host concerts, performances and Broadway-style touring shows that no current campus or community venues could support.
Copper, stone and metal highlight the new Pablo Center at the Confluence
Completed in March 2018, the 155,000-square-foot project uses copper and other durable, high-quality materials to create a truly memorable and distinctive piece of architecture by connecting the city’s unique geography and past economies to its vision of the future.
Gilbert Oh, AIA, LEED AP, is the project architect at Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture, New York City, which recently merged with Steinberg Hart, Los Angeles. He says the theater’s location along the river played a big part in the design process. “Metal panels were a pragmatic decision because of the insulation. The depth of the panels helps the appearance because they are high up and we didn’t want that look to get lost from the street.”
Malcom Holzman, partner-in-charge at Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture, says, “When you’re building a stage tower, it gets to be pretty high, so when you go to clad it, you want to get it done easily and quickly, so you can get it enclosed, which was important in this case. Insulated metal panels allowed that to happen.”
The exterior of the main theater features 29,900 square feet of Lewisville, Texas-based Metl-Span’s 7.2 Insul-Rib insulated metal panels (IMPs). The IMPs have a 3-inch polyurethane insulated core with 22-gauge Weathered Zinc exterior metal and 26-gauge Igloo White interior metal.
Holzman says the profile depth of the panels is important. “We wanted the building to read as a volume and not as a panel. The shape and shadow deceive the eye so it reads as volume.”
Additionally, KME Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Osnabrück, Germany, supplied 18,000 square feet of shop-fabricated copper, and 3 1/2-inch sawn height Aqua Grantique stone from Krukowski Stone Co. Inc., Mosinee, Wis., a local product that brings everything full circle on the building. Oh says the stone is Wisconsin stone, mined less than 50 miles from the site. “That was important because historically, a lot of Eau Claire structures are built using masonry; it’s more brick than stone, but it’s a familiar look in the area. The curved copper extends as close to the river as possible and it contrasts the stone.”
“When you construct a civic facility like this you do so with the intent that it will last over 100 years,” Holzman. “And the stone, copper and metal provide an appearance that you might find at any civic center in Wisconsin.”
Division V Sheet Metal, St. Paul, Minn., installed the 7.2 Insul-Rib panels. Bruce Reed, senior project manager at Division V Sheet Metal, says the job was pretty straightforward. “With the copper, the stone and the IMPs, there had to be some coordination with the delivery and installation, but it went well,” he explains. “The biggest challenge for us was working in the middle of winter instead of the middle of fall. Fortunately, the insulated metal panels were delivered on time and they were packaged by elevation so they were in the order we requested. That saves even more time during the installation because we don’t have to spend time sorting out panels.”
The Pablo Center at the Confluence operates in support of a mission focused on augmenting and developing opportunities to experience the performing, literacy and visual arts. The facility offers a 1,200-plus seat theater/concert hall, and a 400-seat theater, and 250-seat flexible use space, in addition to three rehearsal, dance and community rooms, visual arts galleries, sound and design labs, set and exhibition design, recording arts, multimedia production and costume design, as well as spaces equipped to support vocational training initiatives.