Construction has topped out on the AT&T Performing Arts Center, an 80,300-square-foot multi-form theatre facility. Upon completion, the 600-seat Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre will provide a new state-of-the-art home for the Dallas Theater Center, Dallas Black Dance Theatre and Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico, as well as numerous other performing arts organizations that serve Dallas and the region.
The Wyly Theatre is designed by REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus (partner in charge) and Rem Koolhaas, in collaboration with Houston-based firm Kendall Heaton.
The 12-level building will feature a groundbreaking design with an unprecedented “stacked,” vertically organized facility that completely rethinks the traditional form of theatre.
The Wyly Theatre will be a cast-in-place and structural steel framed facility with exterior curtainwall and aluminum cladding. This facility will provide new performance space for Dallas with its revolutionary approach to theatre design, incorporating state-of-the-art technology and advanced mechanics that will allow artistic directors to rapidly change the stage configuration to a wide variety of seating configurations including proscenium, thrust and flat floor.
The main performance chamber is located at ground level and support spaces are located above-house and below-house. This layout represents a significant departure from typical theatre design in which most support spaces surround the performance chamber. Included elsewhere within the facility are a cocktail bar, rehearsal spaces, administrative offices, costume shop, lobby, stage support areas, mechanical rooms, production spaces and rooftop multipurpose space.
McCarthy is also building one of the AT&T Performing Arts Centers’ underground parking garages, a 222,000-square-foot project that includes three levels of underground parking for more than 600 vehicles to conveniently and safely serve all Dallas Arts District venues and patrons. When completed, this below-grade parking garage will be backfilled with soil, creating the above-ground site for the Center’s Performance Park.
“McCarthy is very pleased to be an integral part of the expansion of the Dallas Arts District. The Wyly Theatre and underground parking garage projects provide McCarthy an opportunity to once again showcase our abilities with these types of facilities,” said McCarthy Texas Division President Mike McWay.
“The campaign to build the AT&T Performing Arts Center is entering its final phase,” said Howard Hallam, chair of the Board of Directors of the AT&T Performing Arts Center. “With construction now underway, the 25-year dream of the Dallas Arts District is coming to fruition in a tangible, visible and dramatic way. We look forward to working with McCarthy over the next several years until the completion of the Wyly Theatre.”
In addition to the Wyly Theatre, McCarthy’s most notable performing arts project work are the Hollywood/Highland complex including the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California, a $312 million, 833,109-square-foot, mixed-use facility known as home to the Academy Awards, and the UC Davis Robert & Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in Davis, California, a $51.5 million, 106,000-square-foot, multi-level, 1,800-seat main performance hall with a 25-seat studio theater.
About McCarthy
Founded in 1864, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest privately held construction firms. The company provides general contracting, construction management, program management and design/build services for entertainment, healthcare, education, parking, retail, laboratory, biotechnical, microelectronic, and industrial facilities; office buildings; tenant interiors; mixed-use; and bridges and highways. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.
