New York City

People/Products

Located in New York City’s rejuvenated High Line district, The Cedar Lake Dance Ensemble is a technologically advanced black box theater for an ambitious dance troupe. To the greatest degree possible, the design scheme utilized two 1920s brick garages—one for rehearsal space and one for performance—as they were found.

The western half, containing the offices, rehearsal hall, lounge, and lockers for the dancers, had been restored in 1999, and was formerly a photo Studio. The architects reworked existing walls to create new locker rooms and a lounge, and added new lighting, sprinklers, and mechanical rooms, while retaining the rehearsal hall’s beautifully exposed original roof trusses and large skylight.

The eastern half of the building was a large open shed with the same fine bones as the western portion: a simple gable roof with delicately exposed trusses. But the eastern section of the building had not been restored. The program for the theater called for flexible seating and required a number of new rooms: patron toilets, dressing rooms, lighting and audio closets, and wardrobe. The architects erected a new wall made of recycled brick at the northern end of the east shed’s open space and constructed the dressing rooms, wardrobe, and mezzanine for utility spaces behind it. The patron toilets were inserted in a pair of small, cold-rolled steel-clad pods at the front of the building.

The material palette was limited to the application of new finishes where needed in neutral colors and simplicity sympathetic to the original exposed structure and materials. Lighting was used throughout as a unifying element. New metal detail shows off the surviving grit of the old, while making it part of a contemporary scene.


People

Owner

The Cedar Lake Dance Ensemble

Architect
Platt Byard Dovell White Architects LLP
20 West 22nd Street, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10010
T: (212) 691-2440
F: (212) 633-0144

Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit:
Partner in Charge: Paul S. Byard, FAIA
 
Project Manager:David Grider, AIA

Project Architect:
Simone Ghetti, RA
Leonard Leung, RA
Naomi Touger

Engineer(s)
Structural Engineer: Anastos Engineering Associates
www.anastoseng.com

MEP Engineer:
Rodkin Cardinale Consulting Engineers, P.C.,
www.simonrodkinpc.com

Geotechnical Engineer:
Melick-Tully and Associates PC
www.melick-tully.com

Consultant(s)
Theater: Production & Performance Facility Consulting
www.ppfconsulting.net

Lighting:
Vortex Lighting
www.vortexlighting.com

Acoustical: Peter George Associates, Inc.,
203 Kings Highway West
Haddonfield, NJ, 08033
PH:(212) 334-9700

Building Code & Zoning:
William Dailey
441 West 43rd Street
Ground Floor, New York, NY 10036
PH:(212) 586-2114

Cost Estimating:
McQuilkin Associates, Inc.,
www.mcquilkinassociates.com

General contractor
Hudson Meridian Construction Group
www.hudsonmeridian.com

Photographer(s)
Jonathan Wallen
PH:(914) 476-8674
“Photography by Jonathan Wallen”

CAD system, project management, or other software used:
AutoCAD 2004

 

Products

Exterior cladding:
Masonry: Existing Masonry

Roofing:
Built-up roofing: Existing – Patched as needed

Glazing:
Glass:
Skylights: Existing – New to match – Formed Metal and Glass

Interior finishes:
Plastic laminate: Wilsonart Laminate

Special surfacing:
Floor and wall tile:
Locker Rooms, Theater Bathrooms: Vivo Ceramica “UpTown” 4x24; StoneSource Gypsum Tile 2”x4”.

Changing Room, Bathrooms & Showers, Bathroom: DalTile Crystaltex 4¼x4¼.

Resilient flooring: Expandro XR3

Carpet: Masland, Tansu

Lighting:
Theater Houselights: Delray mounted to McMasterCarr Theater

Rehearsal Uplights: Rambusch Theater

Burial Uplights: Exterierur Vert

Chandelier: Andromedra Nastro 60.0”

Backstage Pendents: Delray

Lobby, Backstage Steplight: Engineered Lighting Products Lobby

Rehearsal Studio: Forecast

Entry Vestibule, Offices: Bruck Pako

Flourescent Pendants: Axis

Recessed Ceiling Flourescents: Focal Point

Dressing Rooms, Guest Bathrooms: Intense

Dessing Room Mirrors: Celestial Lighting

Bathroom Sconce: Atemide Logico Micro Wall

Lounge Pendants: Sistemalux

Wardrobe, Utility Rooms: Lithonia

Exterior Burial Uplights: Bega

Office Pendants: IN