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Colburn School of Performing Arts

Los Angeles, California

Previously housed in a warehouse, the Colburn School of Performing Arts is now located in a boldly expressed facility in the heart of downtown L.A.  The dramatically lit exterior leads to an interior with subtle layers of light defining spatial rhythms.  This creates an environment conducive to the school's mission - uplifting, creative, beckoning.  Despite a tight budget and acoustical challenges, HLB and Pfeiffer Partners/HHPA worked together to ensure the series of inspirational spaces were linked together successfully by technical, emotional and aesthetic issues.

The heart of the school is 420-seat Zipper Hall.  Providing a warm and inviting environment for both audience and performers, acoustical, theatrical, and architectural systems work together seamlessly.  The suspended discs over the stage are acoustical reflectors … and chandeliers too, as light passes through them.  Dance studios use a combination of simple incandescent and fluorescent industrial luminaires.  The school's original lighting design has been recognized with an IIDA Award of Merit and a Lumen West Award of Excellence.

HLB has also recently completed designing the lighting for the adjacent $120 million, 300,000 square foot Colburn expansion facility with Pfeiffer Partners which includes a residential learning opportunity for students, including the auditorium, rehearsal and practice rooms, studios, lobbies, circulation, executive offices, student services, student and faculty lounges, classrooms, library, cafeteria, housing units, exterior plaza/building entries, and façade.  The same rhythmic approach to the expansion areas relates back to the original design, but brings forth unique elements, materials, and expression.  The new Thayer Hall auditorium space was designed in a modern form, relating to the contemporary usages such as webcasting and long distance learning.  Dramatic colored light on wood surfaces contrast to the warm, traditional lighting approach applied to Zipper Hall.