PODCASTS > Arcat Detailed Podcast Episode

106: Polycarbonate Facade | Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center

55m 40s |

In this episode, Cherise is joined by Brian Wickersham, Founding Partner and Design Director at AUX Architecture in Los Angeles, California. They discuss the Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center, located on the campus of Vista Del Mar Child & Family Services in Cheviot Hills, Los Angeles, California.

The Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center is a beautifully reimagined space, born from the remodel and expansion of a 1950s-era Temple located at the heart of Vista Del Mar’s campus. The Center is not just a building but a beacon of innovation and inclusion, designed to be the home of Vista Del Mar's therapeutic performing arts program. Made from polycarbonate, its semi-translucent façade wraps around the building, and when illuminated at night, it turns into a glowing centerpiece for the campus.

Photos Credit: Nic Lehoux

Project Name and Location: Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center, located on the campus of Vista Del Mar Child & Family Services in Cheviot Hills, Los Angeles, California

Founded in 1908, Vista Del Mar is a 114-year-old non-profit organization that began service to the community by founding the first cottage-style orphanage in Southern California. Today, they provide a trauma-responsive continuum of services to empower children, youth, and families in Southern California to lead fulfilling lives.

Located on an 18-acre campus in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, the organization has largely been focused on inward operations but in recent years has begun to open to the surrounding community. The Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center is a major step in that direction.

The Center is a remodel of and addition to a 1950s-era Temple located at the center of Vista Del Mar’s campus and was conceived and designed to be the home of Vista Del Mar's innovative therapeutic performing arts program. The Center provides space for both learning and performing dance, music, and theatrical productions. Accessory spaces allow for production coordination, stage craft, dressing and changing, rehearsal, and classrooms.

The building is designed as a series of vignettes that express motion, music, and movement. A semi-translucent façade wraps the structure and, in the evening when the lights turn on, the building transforms into a glowing heart at the center of the campus. Besides adding a distinctive aesthetic, the highly durable polycarbonate façade is made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic and can be recycled again at the end of its lifecycle. A key challenge was to preserve as much of the existing structure as possible. The Temple’s foundation and structural diaphragm were saved and became the framework of the new building.

Directly behind the façade, a series of rhythmic columns create an interplay of light and shadow. The resulting gradient pattern works in conjunction with the primary stair and lobby, both of which vary in width (in plan) to create a sense of compression and expansion. This concept drew inspiration from "Lamentation," the Martha Graham dance piece in which a dancer struggles within a garment, and as a metaphor for the struggles many people with Autism experience every day.

The building has comfortable spaces for flexible learning, a color palette in light tones, and acoustic systems that aid those with sound sensitivity. Individual rooms are designed to accommodate multiple purposes and may be a classroom by morning, rehearsal space by day, and green room by night. The stage and rehearsal room were designed to feel like equal spaces, orientation-wise and dimension-wise, to provide a more acclimated environment for the end user.

The 10,550 sf Center was built with a conservative budget but with carefully selected materials, often in standard off-the-shelf finishes, which allow for several key design features including wood grille panels with acoustic felt in the theater, a wood sprung stage floor with different surface options for different types of performances, and gleaming white terrazzo in the box office lobby, stair, and entry lobby.

Brian Wickersham, Founding Partner, Design Director, [email protected]

Brian Wickersham, AIA, is the founding partner of AUX Architecture. With more than 20 years of experience, he creates meaningful spaces that promote creativity and community. Bringing both rigor and spontaneity to his designs, he cultivates research and collaboration in his Los Angeles studio to produce bespoke architecture that best serves client needs. He likens this robust process to jazz: improvisational and collective. AUX Architecture’s diverse body of work includes award-winning residential and multifamily homes, retail environments, art galleries, and education and cultural arts centers. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Brian strives to mitigate architecture’s impact on the environment. He integrates care and sustainability into all aspects of the studio.