GEORGE S. AND DOLORES DORE ECCLES PERFORMING ARTS CENTER & HORNE SCHOOL OF MUSIC

Snow College has the reputation as the smallest college with the strongest academic reputation in Utah. Former President Higbee charged the faculty '..to make the college the center and heart of the intellectual, cultural and aesthetic life of this area.' thus started the journey towards the realization of the new performing arts center.

The project provides one building for two departments, music and theatre, each keeping their own identity. The building includes approximately 90,000 square feet, making it the largest building in all of Sanpete County, Utah. The challenge was to scale down the volume required for the reverberation of each of the performance halls. The performance spaces are evident in the dark masses. Classrooms surround the dark masses punctuating the space with undulating windows that read as a musical score. Color and change in plane create relief in the facade by articulation of the masonry. Light, shadow and freshly fallen snow further animate the façade, framing fragments of instruments and students visible from outside and framing the mountains and landscape visible from the inside. Benches are cast into the masonry and aluminum shrouds frame the windows. Benches an window boxes inhabited by students create a 'living wall' that further mediates scale.

The design: - Three stages for performance align creating a 'performance zone' within the building. This performance zone creates a 'special 'lobby experience as the third stage in the sequence. It is a space for drama; a space that IS drama. Each performance house has a ceiling and a floor plane that take the form and color of a 'ribbon'. These 'ribbons' define the soundscape for each performance hall. Soundscape is the manipulation of sound by manipulating the space that it inhabits.

The ceiling plane of the lobby, takes the form of a knot linking the music department with the theatre department. The knot is comprised of two colors of fabric fused between two layers of transparent acrylic. The material is transparent when lit from above and opaque when lit from below. The form is dramatic and sets the stage for the lobby on performance night. It is the backdrop for the lobby, a place to see and be seen.

In addition to the 750 seat Concert Hall and 500 seat Theatre, program spaces include; state of the art music practice rooms, recital hall, black box theatre, percussion studio, piano studio, choral rehearsal hall, control rooms, dressing rooms, scene shops, storage rooms, faculty offices, conference rooms, and costume shop.

All projects are the result of the work of many: This project was led, designed and executed by Donna Barry and Jose Pombo while employed by Gould Evans. SUBSTANCE design consortium was conceived so that Donna and Jose can work together to create equally successful projects, other primary players on the project include; Kari Smith, Brian Avery, Pete Rae, Bill Osborn, Kyle Houston, Shane Hawkins, Kevin Blalock, Jeff Davis and Becky Hawkins. Photography provided courtesy of the State of Utah.