Woodland Community College’s new 35,000-square-foot Performing Arts and Culinary Services Building houses a 450-seat theater and fully equipped kitchen classroom, as well as flexible classroom spaces for music, 2D arts, and agriculture programs. The theater’s lower seating area and orchestra pit are reconfigurable, allowing the performing arts space to be utilized for various activities.
The north half of the building features a curved, sloping exterior glazing wall and curved 12” concrete masonry unit (CMU) walls surrounding the theater. The structural system for the southern half of the building consists of a steel frame with non-bearing cold-formed steel shear walls. A seismic joint, which is thoughtfully incorporated into the architecture of the building’s front elevation, is present between the two portions of the building.
ZFA worked closely with the theater consultant architect, food service/kitchen designer, and acoustician for the structural support of catwalks, a tension grid, theater rigging, pivoting walls, kitchen equipment, and sound equipment.