The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, the new multi-venue center in the Dallas Arts District, is designed to create new landmarks on the Dallas skyline, with stunning buildings by some of the world’s greatest architects.
Three major architectural firms – London-based Foster and Partners, New York-based Office for Metropolitan Architecture, and New York-based REX – have designed different parts of the performing arts center. The $354-million Dallas Center is hailed as the most significant new performing arts complex to be built since New York City’s Lincoln Center.
The new center features four main buildings interwoven within 10 acres of pedestrian-friendly landscaping and public parks. The center is funded mainly by generous contributions from America’s most wealthy and the four main buildings carry the name of the most generous contributors.
Designed by Foster + Partners, under Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster, the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House features stages equipped for ballet and other forms of dance performances. Winspear Opera House’s principal performance space, the Margaret McDermott Performance Hall, is designed as a 21st century reinterpretation of the traditional horseshoe opera house. It features a dramatic red heart within the transparent encasement of the 2,200-seat opera house.
The opera house’s principal entrance features the 60-feet Annette and Harold Simmons signature glass façade that wraps three-quarters of the way around the building. The transparent façade provides dramatic views of the Margaret McDermott Performance Hall, which will be clad in vibrant red glass panels.
To enhance the connection with the park, an 84-feet wide section of the glass façade will be retractable to a height of 23 feet, literally opening up the grand lobby, cafe and box circle-level restaurant to performance park.
Designed by REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus and Rem Koolhaas, the 12-level Wyly Theater features an unprecedented stacked, vertically organized facility that completely rethinks the traditional form of theater.
Designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM) and constructed by the City of Dallas, the City Performance Hall will include a 750-seat hall that will provide main stage production space for Dallas’ smaller performing arts organizations.
