
PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA
The Performing Arts Center for the College of the Holy Cross is rooted in the campus setting and traditions; reaches out to draw in a broad cross-section of the college community; and reaches up, acknowledging a relationship to the moral, ethical, and spiritual foundations that help give meaning to the efforts taking place within the center.
The Performing Arts Center occupies a critical site on campus, mediating between the established lower academic campus and the upper athletic campus and establishing a more formal entry to the upper campus. The interior functions as a transparent, naturally lit, and engaging theatrical landscape on multiple fully accessible levels. Entwined around the landscape is a 400-seat concert hall and a 200-seat flexible tech theater which share their associated support spaces—rehearsal and seminar rooms, dressing rooms, green room, innovation lab, café, and new media/rehearsal studio—creating an innovative environment for the arts to be explored and presented. The red sandstone-clad exterior draws on campus traditions of individual masonry buildings meeting the sky and is distinguished by a green roof wrapping an arts garden and an “arts scrim” showcasing creative works.
Design Renderings










Video Tour
Project Data
STATUS: Invited Design Competition 2013
SIZE: 66,000 sf
COST: N/A
Project Credits
OWNER: College of the Holy Cross
ARCHITECT: Epstein Joslin Architects
Principals-in-Charge: Alan Joslin, Deborah Epstein, and Ray Porfilio, Designers: Robert Picardy, Arthur Pinkham, Emily Glass, Chimaobi Izeogu
ASSOCIATE ARCHITECT: Finegold Alexander Associates
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: Carol Johnson Associates
ACOUSTIC CONSULTANT: Kirkegaard Associates
THEATER CONSULTANT: Auerbach Pollack Friedlander
IMAGE COPYRIGHT: Epstein Joslin Architects