Theatre 2443, at right, owned by Theatre Royal, will receive one of two Honor Awards to be given as part of the 2008 USITT Architecture Awards Program. The lavish interior helped garner the award for the theatre located in the United Kingdom.

Photo/Dennis Gilbert

Ashley A. Austin
Administrative Assistant

In March six outstanding structures will be honored with USITT 2008 Architecture Awards. These awards go to extraordinary performance spaces from across the world. The 2008 selection panel included Thomas Payne, a founding partner of Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, Christopher Hume, noted architect critic and columnist for the TorontoStar, and Richard Talaske, founder of TALASKE, a consulting firm.

Selected to receive Honor Awards are Theatre 2443 in the United Kingdom, and The Mercersburg Academy, Burgin Center for the Arts in Pennsylvania.

Owned by Theatre Royal, Theatre 2443 in the United Kingdom was designed by Levitt Bernstein Associates, Ltd. with theatre consultant Arup Venne Consulting and acoustical consultant Arup Acoustics.

Burgin Center for the Arts in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania is owned by The Mercersburg Academy. The architect for the project is Polshek Partnership Architects, with theatre consultant Theatre Projects Consultants, Inc., and acoustical consultant Acoustic Dimensions.

Four additional buildings were chosen to receive Merit Awards. These are the Studzinski Recital Hall, The Pearson Theatre, Atlas Performing Arts Center, and Tempe Center for the Arts.

This year all Merit Award winners are from the United States. Studzinski Recital Hall, owned by Bowdoin College is located in Brunswick, Maine. The recital hall was designed by William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc. with the assistance of theatre consultant Theatre Projects Consultants and acoustical consultant Kirkegaard Associates, Inc..

Located in Berkeley, California, the Pearson Theatre (owned by John & Helen Meyer, Meyer Sound) was designed by Marcy Wong & Donn Logan Architects. The theatre consultant was Auerbach Pollack Friedlander; Auerbach / Glasow and the acoustical consultant was Meyer Sound.

The Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, D.C. was designed by CORE Architecture & Design. The theatre consultants used were Tony Cisek, Dan Covey & Scott Burgess, and the acoustical consultant was Shen, Milsom & Wilke, Inc..

The city of Tempe, Arizona is the proud owner of the Tempe Center for the Arts. It was designed by Barton Myers, Associates, Inc. in association with theatre consultant Theatre Projects Consultants, Inc., and acoustical consultant Arup Acoustics.

This year there were more than 30 projects submitted for review -- some new construction, some old, undergoing renovation. All projects were reviewed by the jury in light of the award guidelines before coming to a final decision.

The awards will be given Saturday, March 22 at the Awards Banquet as part of the concluding event of the USITT Annual Conference & Stage Expo in Houston, Texas. All projects that were submitted for review will be reviewed at the Architecture Award Review held Friday, March 21 from 12:15 pm -- 1:35 pm in the George R. Brown Convention Center, Room 310F.

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