The Kennedy Center for Theatre and the Studio Arts, designed by Machado and Silvetti, is located directly across the lawn from the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum, also designed by Machado Silvetti. The center is part of a collection of buildings around a reconstructed pond that forms a new arts quad at Hamilton College.
The design of the center includes a continuous carpet of stone and concrete pavement, onto which a series of objects are placed. The patterns in the pavement reflect the large scale of the plaza, with stripes that adjust in width to accommodate the different objects.
The center brings classrooms, studios, faculty offices, performance spaces, and technical workshops into one facility. It houses two-dimensional, three-dimensional, and four-dimensional art studios, equipped with state-of-the-art ventilation systems, controllable natural light, loading dock and freight elevator access, and classrooms and storage spaces.
The project’s tallest element, the Romano Flexible Theatre, is placed at the top of the hill to make a visual connection between the new building and the historic Hamilton College campus. The glass-louvered head houses leading to the underground subway give the precinct a distinctive identity.
