Suspended above the auditorium of Roosevelt High School’s new theater in Seattle is a stunning high-wire act that gives every school performance the opening night glitters.
Instead of seeing the rough underbelly of a theater ceiling—can lights, catwalks and exposed wires—theater goers gaze on the shimmer of bronze. The vision gives credence to the idea that good theater is about illusion. In this case, the illusion is helped by a simple yet striking product—bronze wire mesh. Its presence adds beauty and sound qualities crucial to maximizing the performance experience.
When designing the Roosevelt Theatre, completed in late 2006, Bassetti Architects of Seattle specified the bronze wire mesh for its flexibility, weight and light-diffusion properties. The wire mesh, which appears to float high above Roosevelt’s theater proscenium, is from the designer metals series by McNichols Co., Tampa, Fla.
Designing With Imagination
“When architects or designers envision a product, they consider a myriad of factors, such as light, sound, comfort and safety,” said Bill Tuxhorn, vice president of field marketing services for McNichols. “The designer metals have these characteristics, along with creative applications that are limited only by the imagination.”
According to Lorne McConachie, AIA, Bassetti Architects’ principal, the transparency and pliability of the bronze wire mesh allowed the material to be artistically shaped, mounted and suspended to obscure the theater’s mechanical equipment yet provide the glitter and illusion consistent with the magic of the stage.
Combining Sound and Beauty
Working through Hoffman Construction in Seattle, J.S. Perrott & Co., Portland, Ore., fabricated the panels by securing the 18 mesh, 0.018-inch- (0.46-mm-) diameter wire cloth onto 15- to 19-foot (5- to 6-m) S-shaped oak glulams.
Using wire mesh for this purpose “was new to us,” said Brent Anderson of Hoffman Construction. “It is not an everyday application, but it made good sense for this project.”
The complexity of theater acoustics requires that sound be shaped to accommodate the performance needs, McConachie said. The material has to be acoustically transparent to enrich the sound and reverberation.
Considering the theater’s ceiling height of 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12 m) and about 20 feet (6 m) from the upper balcony, the challenge was apparent: Any material that reflects or obscures the sound creates acoustical barriers. Conversely, a metal mesh that allows sound to pass through lets the sound resonate.
Place in History
The Roosevelt Theatre addition was part of a comprehensive remodeling of the school that took place from 2004 to 2006. The original school building, built in 1920, was in need of updating. It was totally retrofitted and modernized by Bassetti Architects, which preserved many of the school’s original architectural elements and carried the design through to the theater.
In the theater, Bassetti Architects wanted to pay tribute to the neoclassical features in the old Roosevelt High School building while being careful to shape the sound with something aesthetically pleasing. The volute shapes of the mesh were a way of being playful with the neoclassical features of the adjacent 1920s structure.
Roosevelt has the only full-time drama program in the Seattle School District, offering eight periods of drama per day, including acting, directing, technical theater, production and design, as well as a full musical theater program with four private voice teachers, a vocal director and a choreographer for the yearly musical.
Named one of the top 10 high school theater programs in America in 1996, Roosevelt Theatre has created a world-class, internationally recognized model for theater education. The students of Roosevelt High School receive outstanding training and many have gone on to further training at such prestigious institutions as New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, New York City; Carnegie Mellon and Yale University.
Metal With Merit
Metals with holes, such as the bronze wire mesh used in the theater, are rooted in the industrial and manufacturing sector, as many of the products evolved from those used in equipment parts and heavy construction. The demand from the designers grew when these durable materials were viewed as aesthetically pleasing, imaginative and adaptable. The demand gave birth to higher quality metal products and a broader range of materials, such as stainless steel, aluminum, carbon steel, copper and brass. The bonus is they are environmentally friendly.
Today, but for the imagination of Bassetti Architects and collaboration of the contractor, installer and supplier, Roosevelt High School’s theater might have been a strictly utilitarian space without the magic born of solution-driven creative minds.
Mary Estes is principal of Estes and Co., Tampa, Fla.
