New World Symphony | Gehry Partners LLP

DESIGN / CONSTRUCTION TEAM Architect:
Gehry Partners, LLP
Los Angeles, California

Architectural Team:
Design Partner – Frank Gehry
Project Designer – Craig Webb
Managing Partner – Terry Bell
Project Architect – Brad Winkeljohn
Project Manager – Kristin Ragins
Project Team – Curtis Christensen , Dan Sokolosky, Molly Forr, Lisa Cage , Shikha Doogar, Petar Vrcibradic, Leon Cheng, Vartan Chalikian, Armando Solano, Luciana Vidal, Rolando Mendoza

Acoustician:
Nagata Acoustics America, Inc
Los Angeles, California

Acoustical Team:
Dr. Yasuhisa Toyota
Motoo Komoda
Kayo Kallas
Daniel Beckmann
Robert Mahoney, Robert F Mahoney & Associates

Structural Engineering:
Gilsanz, Murray, Steficek, LLP

MEP-FP Engineering:
Cosentini & Associates

Theater Consultant:
Theatre Projects Consultants

Lighting Designer:
LAM Partners, Inc.

Sound & Projection Consultants:
Acoustic Dimensions, Sonitus, LLC

Landscape Architect:
Raymond Jungles Associates

Civil Engineer:
Kimley Horn and Associates, Inc.

Construction Manger:
Hines


Il New World Center, sede dell’America’s Orchestral Academy, è già divenuto icona culturale per il centro di Miami Beach. Il New World Center dispone di numerosi spazi per spettacoli e presentazioni; una sala con posti a sedere flessibili e variabili, e uno schermo di circa 650 mq per proiezioni gratuite di concerti, video e film che saranno presentati in Soundscape, in un parco pubblico di 2,5 ettari, progettato dallo studio di architettura olandese West 8.

Concepito come un laboratorio per insegnare, eseguire e sperimentare la musica, il New World Center è stato costruito attorno al programma della New World Symphony e contiene 24 singole sale prova, 4 sale per complessi strumentali e 3 per le percussioni - tutte cablate per la registrazione audio/video e con connessione internet a banda ultralarga.

L'edificio comprende il SunTrust Pavilion, una grande sala polivalente che funge sia da spazio didattico principale per l'orchestra sia da spazio per spettacoli, proiezioni cinematografiche, conferenze, incontri e registrazioni. La parete est, situata vicino all’atrio al piano terra, è in vetro e consente ai passanti di poter vedere le attività all'interno ed essere indotti a entrare nell’edificio. Una terrazza superiore, oltre a offrire la vista sul parco pubblico, permette alle persone di osservare le attività all'interno del Padiglione senza interromperle.

Nel progetto dell’edificio sono state incorporate ulteriori sale studio e sale prova, aule e 'technical suites'. Queste includono due sale per complessi strumentali, ciascuna in grado di ospitare una master class per 20-25 persone, ospitate al terzo piano all'interno di una struttura chiamata The Flower. The Knight New Media Center serve come video/audio 'editing suite' che permette alla New World Symphony di acquisire e distribuire contenuti in formato digitale.


The New World Center is a unique performance, education, production and creative space with state-of-the-art capabilities, owned and operated by the New World Symphony. A global hub for creative expression and collaboration and a laboratory for the ways music is taught, presented and experienced, the new building will enable the New World Symphony to continue its role as the leader in integrating technology with music education and concert presentation. It will be used by the New World Symphony for educational activities, musical and related cultural performances and events, rehearsals, Internet2 transmissions, recordings, broadcasts and webcasts. The venue will also be available for third-party uses on a rental basis.
Dedicated to classical music’s power to communicate and connect, the New World Center is at once exceptionally transparent and outgoing. The 7,000-square-foot projection wall located on the right side of the façade brings what happens inside the concert hall to the event space outside. The main viewing area, ExoStage@Miami Beach SoundScape, can accommodate up to 1,000 people and is surrounded by an immersive sound system designed to look like two giant, gently curving ballet barres, providing a first-rate listening experience to audiences. In addition to offering wallcasts™ of concerts, the projection wall will show presentations including the site-specific video mural, video art, films and informational shorts.

The main entrance of New World Center is set in a soaring, 80-foot-high glass curtain wall to the left of the projection wall, providing uninterrupted views of the skylit main atrium and the dramatic, tumbling forms delineating the interior spaces beyond. The entrance is distinguished by a white, wave-like canopy and opens out onto the Mary and Howard Frank Plaza and Miami Beach SoundScape. Built with glass with no iron content, the curtain wall is utterly clear and disappears when lit from within— by the atrium’s skylight during the day and by theatrical lighting at night. When lit at night by the space’s architectural lighting system, the tumbling forms within the frame of the curtain wall take on the character of performers on a proscenium stage, turning the building itself into a performance. A 650-square-foot LED light field is positioned at the top of the transparent wall, announcing its programming, and the campus’s box office is located next to the main entrance.
The atrium immediately conveys the feeling that New World Center is a place to be used and enjoyed. The floors are polished concrete, the walls are painted drywall, and the seating consists of baby-blue banquettes with plywood backing. A large, illuminated glass bar with an undulating, blue-tinted titanium canopy is situated at the back of lively, light-flooded space. The atrium also features Taboehan (2003), a monumental sculpture by artist Frank Stella. Donated by Miami collector Martin Z. Margulies, Taboehan is the only work of art permanently on view at New World Center.
Among the principal spaces that open onto the atrium is the SunTrust Pavilion: a large, multi-purpose room for full-orchestra rehearsals, small performances, film screenings, lectures, business meetings and recordings, many of which will be free and open to the public. The east wall of the pavilion is glass, allowing passersby to see the activity inside and be encouraged to enter the building. An upper terrace permits people to observe the activities in the Pavilion without disrupting them, while offering an expansive view over Miami Beach SoundScape.
To reach the performance hall through the atrium, concertgoers pass through one of two softly lit, serpentine corridors that gradually narrow as they wind along, before opening again dramatically to reveal the hall. Visitors arrive into the space by the front of the stage, in the center of the 50-foot-high, circular hall where tiers of seats rise on all sides. From the first moment in the hall, the design makes people participants rather than spectators—and once the audience members take their places, they remain involved, since no one in this intimate, 756-seat hall is more than 13 rows from the stage.
The collaboration of Gehry Partners with Nagata Acoustics and Theatre Projects Consultants has resulted in a performance hall that is virtually unlimited in the experiences it can offer. The stage is comprised of ten platforms, each on its own mechanical lift, with fourteen distinctive configurations for all kinds of performance experiences, from a solo recital with cabaret seating to a full-orchestra concert. It is also possible to lower all of the platforms, retract 247 of the seats and turn the central space into a dance floor for the New World Symphony’s series of Pulse concerts. Four built-in platforms set throughout the hall serve as satellite stages, allowing the focus of a concert to shift from the main stage to another part of the room instantaneously, with only a lighting change. Large, curved acoustical “sails” on all sides of the hall double as screens for 14 high definition projectors, allowing New World Symphony to immerse audiences in a visual experience during a concert, or simply show brief program information on a single screen above the stage.
Natural light in the performance hall is afforded via an overhead skylight and a large panoramic window behind the stage, overlooking 17th Street. The hall’s seats are upholstered in mottled patterns of blues and white – specially designed by Frank Gehry and produced by Poltrona Frau – which are inspired by the building’s tropical location and intended to bring imagery of the water and sky of Miami Beach into the performance hall.

As a facility dedicated to music education, New World Center contains twenty-four individual practice rooms and four ensemble rehearsal rooms where individuals or groups can choose to work either within or away from public view. The technological infrastructure and architectural design also establish links between the activities in these areas and the building’s other public functions. The Knight New Media Center on the building’s third floor contains video and audio editing suites, where New World Symphony can capture, produce and then distribute the audio and visual recordings of concerts, master classes, conversations with guest artists and more. Some of this material will come from the performance hall, which has ten built-in high-definition robotic cameras that can record 360 degrees of concerts and events. Other material will come from the practice rooms and ensemble rooms—two of which are located near the Knight New Media Center on the third floor, wrapped within a structure called The Flower, which is visible throughout the atrium and beyond the curtain wall of the façade. A total of 17 miles of high-speed fiber optic cable runs through the building, allowing every space to be connected to a global audience through next-generation Internet2.
Capping the architectural design are the public and program spaces on the sixth floor: notably the music library (which will be frequented by the Fellows), the Patrons’ Lounge and the rooftop terrace with panoramic views of Miami Beach, the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. The latter space will be used not only by the Fellows and staff of New World Symphony but by patrons and concert ticket-buyers.