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For the Emma Willard School’s new performing arts center in Troy, New York, Annum Architects adapted a 1910 gymnasium—later turned school chapel—as a 500-seat theater and added an adjacent subterranean wing. The redesign retains the historic building’s structure while refreshing its original detailing—restoring, for instance, leaded-glass windows and replacing the slate roof. Annum removed the ground floor of the chapel to insert space for a stage fly system and to improve sight lines and acoustics. The performance space uses air stratification via an under-floor distribution system, which directs air-conditioning to inhabited areas and lessens energy demand. The new wing houses dance studios, a black-box theater, and an orchestra practice room. The structure is set deep in the landscape, leveraging thermal mass and lowering its overall embodied-carbon footprint. The pleated green roof above offers students an informal open space. The roof is angled to open perimeter clerestory windows, naturally illuminating the studios below. Between the two elements of the project, Annum planted a 6,500-square-foot pollinator garden.

Photo © Chuck Choi, click to enlarge.