Named in honour of the seminal work of composer Morton Feldman, who used the term ‘wild beast’ as a metaphor for the ineffable generative force in art, the pavilion is designed to house a highly flexible performance and rehearsal space for Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts.
Designed by California-based architecture and design studio Hodgetts + Fung, the free-standing, one-storey building features a rolling wall that allows the structure to get transformed from an acoustically refined recital hall accommodating 140, into an outdoor performance space for an audience of up to 1,000. The facility has a curved shell-type structure roof, and 60ft-wide hangar doors that open to enable the space to be used as an amphitheatre.
Additionally, there is an earth berm on two sides of the pavilion, requiring retention of up to seven feet of dirt, along with a small mechanical room adjacent to the pavilion.
International engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti provided structural design services for ‘The Wild Beast’, CalArts’ new variable-use, indoor-outdoor music pavilion. The awards presentation ceremony will be held on 2 October 2010 at the NCSEA’s 16th annual conference at the Hyatt Regency on the Hudson, in Jersey City. The Excellence in Structural Engineering Award from NCSEA recognises creative achievement and innovation in structural engineering.
Thornton Tomasetti provides engineering design services to clients worldwide on projects of all sizes and complexity, with practices in building structure, building skin, building performance, construction support services and property loss consulting. Founded in 1956, Thornton Tomasetti is a 550-person organization of engineers and architects collaborating from offices across the US and in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
