Colorado College, Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center

The Cornerstone Arts Center is an unusual project as it is one of the very first ‘interdisciplinary arts centers’ on a US college campus. Although Cornerstone is home to the College’s drama program, with all of the production facilities that a vigorous producing unit needs, the Center also houses jointly-administered venues to create dance art, music and video programming.

Auerbach Pollock Friedlander, theatre consultant, worked with faculty and staff to design and develop performance and instruction facilities that recognized the unique attributes of student workers enrolled in the intensive Block Plan classes unique to Colorado College. The interdisciplinary arts center houses the Richard F. Celeste Theatre, a 430-seat multi-use venue; the Norberg Studio, a 250-seat black box; a 100-seat recital hall, a 75-seat screening room, digital media labs, performance studios, costume shop, scene shop, flexible classrooms and, unique to Cornerstone, the I.D.E.A. Space – an InterDisciplinary Experimental Arts venue for exhibitions, lectures, installations, workshops and performances.

The firm was also challenged with creating an approach to the building’s core lobby – a multi-story transitional space in which events could take place at a moment’s notice. The three-story atrium/lobby/performance space has a lighting and audio backbone and bleacher seating built into the monumental stair to the second lobby level. This space is flanked with catwalks which serve as the travel path between offices and allow faculty, staff and students to look down on the impromptu performances.

Design Architect: Antoine Predock
Architect of Record: Anderson Mason Dale Architects
Acoustics: D.L. Adams Associates
Size: 76,000 SF
Cost: $33,400,000
Completion: 2008