For this project, I designed a modern dance theater for the bustling Delmar Loop, a highly trafficked commercial area north of the Washington University Danforth campus.

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The program of my theater is conceived of as one continuous central space, opening from a more intimate and comfortable single height café to a grand double height lobby, sweeping upwards along the main hemispherical vault towards the second-floor auditorium. This second-floor auditorium continues the language created by the vaults and elaborates on the continuous nature of the central space by having an uninterrupted transition from floor to wall, making a dynamic but also functional space for the performers. The seamless transition from floor to wall also allows for the application of a gradient light creating a dimensionless void behind the performers, if desired. Additionally, there is an elevated thyromata opening onto a balcony that allows performers to incorporate multiple heights and verticality into their performance and make hidden entrances while the scale of the sloping wall allows for these vertical elements to be transgressed by a performer sliding down or clambering up. 
The seating is similarly embedded into the curved walls of the structure which, in tandem with the sloped wall of the stage, create a balanced, cradle-like space. 
 

The cladding is conceived of as a series of high relief bands running perpendicular to the ground plane visualizing the transformation of the geometry as my project recedes back into space. The spaces inbetween these bands then become panels, with the bands acting as a ribbing or exo-skeletal structure for the project.