SFCC Arts Center

  • Gainesville, FL
  • buildings
  • acoustics

This building complex is a community center for the arts at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida.  The primary users are students in dance, music, theater technology, and drama. The venue is also usable by the community and touring acts. Facilities include a performing arts center, black-box theater, music and dance classrooms, theater tech programs, set construction and storage facilities, and an administration center.

The project is organized around an ADA-accessible ramp that winds around the outside of the central performance venue, providing access and pre-function space for venue attendees. The ramp connects two ends of a large public stairway space studded with smaller-scale casual performance venues for use by students of the college. Performing arts students, technical arts students, and administration groups each have their own exterior courtyard, and are joined by a "found" space that becomes an amphitheater. 

The building architecture consists of flowing forms that are sculpted to direct sound where necessary. The building serves as a distinctive landmark and entrance to the college.

Elevation sketch

Parti of building showing major user groups

Section sketch through performance hall

First floor plan

Second floor plan

First floor zones, by user group

Second floor zones, by user group

Site Map, project area in red

Detail Sketch - prefunction nodes around performance hall

Precedent study

The decay of sound over space in an existing performance hall was analyzed, revealing how the shape of acoustic space changes over time to form its acoustic signature. This analysis was used to inform the development of the acoustic signature of the performance venue. 

Precedent study - acoustic fingerprint of an existing concert hall

Precedent study - acoustic fingerprint of an existing concert hall