Page 9 - Millikin Design Book PRINT

Design Concept

Our initial design concept for the Center

for Theatre and Dance is the result of

our understanding of your program and

budget, the physical campus and its

potential building sites, and the rich

history of Millikin University.

The key decision underlying the concept is to “adopt” the campus
legacy of Elizabethan architecture and “adapt” it to a specific time

and place.

We are proposing a new two-story building, sited just informal collaboration spaces are envisioned throughout
east of what has become the main quadrangle of the the new building, with two of the larger spaces afforded
campus. This site is critical to the overall campus design, views to the main quadrangle.
and it is currently ill-served by the RTUC building. The
new Center for Theatre and Dance is organized around The exterior image of the building is heavily influenced
the Elizabethan concept of the “Long Gallery,” adapted by the vocabulary of the Elizabethan style and the
here, in the middle of mirrored “wings,” to bring natural materials (brick and terra cotta) of Shilling Hall. The
light in from above through a skylight. This Gallery is both facades are given a rusticated base, large windows, and
a path and a place, energizing the building throughout gables detailed to create a fanciful foreground to the sky
the day and night with a steady stream of students, beyond. Potential development of the main quadrangle
faculty, and visitors who pass through on their way to a and the open space between the new building and
class or a performance or stop to mingle and interact in Oakland Avenue are included in the concept design,
this grand space. A monumental stair connects the first though budgetary constraints may require some of this
and second floors here, and the Gallery might also be work to be implemented as a future project.
imagined as a “Main Street” through the building; along
this street, and other secondary ones, are the major Envisioning this design concept and communicating it to
programmatic spaces, imagined as buildings within the the University has been a valuable experience, but not
building. because we have found, in the words of President Taylor,
the “most appropriate” or “best solution” for the Center
The existing topography influenced the design concept, for Theatre and Dance. Instead, we have just begun to
with the major entry from the east at the First Level and find the right questions that must be asked. To discover
entries from the south and west at the Second Level. The the rest of the questions, and their answers, we will need
two-story Main Theatre was placed at the north end of the to engage with those who know the campus and the
building, providing a critical relationship to the service theatre and dance program best.
area/loading dock, where scenery and other materials
and equipment can be easily accessed. Formal and We look forward to our collaboration.

Page 8 Millikin University Center for Theatre and Dance