architecture, urban design, planning
The Society of the Four Arts campus is famous for its historic buildings and gardens. Two buildings, the O’Keeffe and Rovensky buildings, were originally designed by Addison Mizner. Urban Matrix was commissioned to conduct a space needs assessment and develop a full master plan for the next 20 years of growth. Critical issues included a deficiency of back of house facilities for the theater and galleries, poor spatial unity of the overall campus and inadequate parking. The Urban Matrix team interviewed all department directors to determine their space needs and identified a severe lack of back of house spaces supporting the galleries and the theater.
The proposal expands the theater and all back of house spaces. Because the expansion changes the external appearance of the O’Keeffe building the building massing was carefully studied so as to maintain the character of the existing historic exterior.
Location: Palm Beach, Florida
Client: Society of the Four Arts
Services:
Programmatic Needs Assessment and department-wide organizational needs study.
Campus wide master plan to address parking demand, campus image, expansion potential and building upgrades to the historic buildings.
Proposal for the expansion and upgrades to the hitoric theater and exhibition space to meet programmatic and functional needs.
Site Acquisition assessment.
