Articulations

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TeamHaas Goes Long

After a few years of lemons for the Long Center, TeamHaas is getting ready to make lemonade. The Austin architectural firm was tapped by the Long Center Board of Trustees last week as the new design team for the proposed performing arts center to be created out of the former Palmer Auditorium. The decision puts the troubled renovation campaign back on track after months of stalled fundraising led the board to abandon the original four-venue design developed by Chicago firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill in 2001. Project leaders voted earlier this fall to downsize the project, scuttling the grand lobby and building only the 2,400-seat Dell Foundation Hall and 250-seat Rollins Hall for now, potentially shaving $50 million off the estimated $125 million cost.

TeamHaas has produced a preliminary design for the stripped-down center, one that sacrifices the patchwork dome that is one of the distinguishing features of the current building and groups spaces for the center within and around the ring that offers the support structure for the dome. The original foundation and stage house would be retained for the large concert hall. The small theatre -- and any additional venues that may be added down the line -- would be built adjacent to the ring structure. This design promises to be economical enough that Dell Foundation Hall should be able to retain certain design elements that were eliminated when the project was scaled back: seating that wraps around the orchestra section, a third balcony, and a molded ceiling.

Joining TeamHaas on the lemonade-making exercise will be Zeidler Partnership, a West Palm Beach firm that is an old hand at creating performing arts venues, with 60 theatres to its credit all over the world; theatre planning and design consultants Fisher Dachs Associates; and acoustic firm Jaffe Holden Acoustics Inc. Both Fisher Dachs and Jaffe Holden were part of the original Long Center design team. Settling on this team is a big plus for the center's timetable. If TeamHaas can deliver designs next year, the Long Center might be able to open in 2007. That's still a year after the ballet, opera, and symphony have to leave Bass Concert Hall once it shuts down for renovations in 2006, but at least it's not more than a year.

Current estimates put the cost of the revised Long Center plan at $74 million, which means center backers are still looking at $30 million to raise for construction. For more information, call 482-0800.