Center Stage

Sited in Boston’s Back Bay, this performing arts center pro- vides a new home for the conglomerate of the Boston Lyric Opera, Berklee College of Music, and Boston Conservatory.  The program demands a flexible theater design, housing performances that range from small student productions to large operas.  To accommodate the diverse needs in capacity, the building’s theater contains six pods—four raked and two flat—that connect to a central stage and fly tower.  Acoustic wall panels can be raised and lowered in the fly tower, open- ing the stage up to a variety of configurations, from a small proscenium arrangement to a large theater in the round.  This centripetal organization radiates throughout the entire build- ing, which cantilevers over the Massachusetts Turnpike and assumes a distinct urban figure as a gateway to the city.