Donna and Marvin Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
Encyclopedia
The Donna & Marvin Schwartz Center for Performing Arts is a 90000 square feet (8,361.3 m²) multi-discipline performing arts
Performing arts
The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...

 facility on the campus of Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...

 in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

. Completed in early 2003, the Schwartz Center provides a multidisciplinary teaching and performance center for the performing arts programs at Emory including dance, music, and theater. The centerpiece of the center is the 825-seat Cherry Logan Emerson Concert Hall featuring a custom-built Daniel Jaeckel Opus 45 pipe organ
Pipe organ
The 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...

 with fifty-four stops and 3,605 pipes in a cherry-wood case. The concert hall was designed in part by renowned acousticians Kirkegaard and Associates. The $36.9 million structure was designed by lead architect Michael Dennis in association with Howard-Montgomery-Steger and Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart.

Design

The Schwartz Center occupies a prominent site at the southwest corner of Emory's campus at the intersection of North Decatur Road and Clifton Road. The architectural style and exterior materials were chosen to echo existing buildings on campus. The nearby Goizueta Business School influenced the primary exterior finish which is a stucco accented by a portuguese limestone known as cietra bella at the building's entrances.

The architects studied venues including Boston's Symphony Hall
Symphony Hall, Boston
Symphony Hall is a concert hall located at 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed by McKim, Mead and White, it was built in 1900 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which continues to make the hall its home. The hall was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1999...

 and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

's Musikverein when designing the center.

The Center's main hall is the 825-seat Cherry Logan Emerson Concert Hall, a tall, narrow shoebox concert hall design that rises above the roofline of the main building and is articulated with clerestory
Clerestory
Clerestory is an architectural term that historically denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. In modern usage, clerestory refers to any high windows...

windows. Emerson Hall is in the southernmost section of the complex and its two-story lobby addresses North Decatur Road and the off-campus community beyond.

The Center also houses two major teaching and performance spaces for theater and dance. The 109-seat dance studio has a Harlequin floor which is the only of its kind in Atlanta, and is the only space in Atlanta that is solely used for dance. The theater lab is a working space, it can be configured in many different ways depending on the performance, and at most seats approximately 70 people. There is also a theater observatory where students can view and discuss what is happening below in the theater lab.

The Tharp Rehearsal Hall is used for major ensemble rehearsals, and is designed to mimic the breadth and height of a concert hall and stage so students can gain real performance experience.

There are classrooms in the lower level of the Center known as "smart" classrooms. They are wired with equipment for multimedia and other presentations.

External links

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