Masonry Magazine August 2016 Page. 62
District Performing Arts Center, Placentia, Calif.
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Details
The District Performing Arts Center, located on the El Dorado High School campus in Placentia, Calif., is a music, dance and theater center. Students throughout the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District interested in the performing arts have access to the facility. Designed as a multi-use concert hall and theater, the arts center has a stage large enough for more than 120 student performers and seating for 635 spectators.
Numerous design workshops were held with program coordinators from the high school and from the larg�er school district in the early design stages. The objective was to produce a design flexible enough to accommo�date the school district's diverse per�formance venue needs. The Center was built chiefly with concrete mason�ry because the block helped accom�plish the design vision for the facility:
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that the building materials both har�monize with the existing buildings on campus and also reflect the essence of the musical performances that take place within, all in a cost-effective manner.
SVA Architects, Inc., set the stan�dard for future campus development by tapping into smart building tech�nologies. "To that end, concrete ma�sonry was one of the primary design aesthetics of the building, and the outcome exceeded the goals of the school district and community," said Robert Simons, AIA, president and partner of SVA Architects.
Concrete masonry units are afford�able, durable and sustainable, accord�ing to Simons. By integrating them into the building design, he was able to pro�vide enough thermal mass to moderate the facility's temperature, resulting in reduced energy usage and increased
Acknowldegements
2015 Concrete Masonry
Design Awards of
Excellence -Award of
Merit Commercial
Mason Contractor
Frazier Masonry Corp., Lancaster, Calif.
Architect
SVA Architects, Inc., Santa Ana, Calif.
Photography
NW Architectural Photography
savings in maintenance costs over the life of the building.
California is considered a high seismic region and higher standards are required for public school facilities. The center was designed with structural steel roof framing and CMU shear wall to resist high seismic lateral forces.
Moreover, "concrete masonry comes in several forms; it can be a very flexible material when color and texture are used creatively," said Simons. Along with a series of screen panels that wrap around the exterior, the design team used various types of concrete masonry units and projecting block patterns to create a subtle, yet dynamic fa9ade. The new Performing Arts Center is a versatile and attractive, yet a truly economical, venue for the performing arts and sets the standard for future campus development using concrete masonry. IMAS
60 I MASONRY � August 2016 � www.masoncontractors.org The Voice of the Masonry Industry