June 24, 2016

Vashon opens $20M center for the arts

Photos by Kevin Scott [enlarge]

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Vashon Center for the Arts has opened on Vashon Island, with 19,900 square feet in a one-story building.

LMN Architects designed the $20.2 million space, and Sellen built it.

It houses an art gallery, lobby, dressing rooms, multipurpose classroom, and a 300-seat performance hall with an orchestra pit and catwalk system.

LMN said in a press release that the center serves the symphony, chorale and opera, and can be configured for plays, dance, lectures and music.

The center has a long gabled roof. The exterior is natural materials with modern detailing. Mechanical rooms are in the eave space at the shoulders of the roof, an efficiency LMN said was prompted by the tight site. Parking is behind the building.

The art gallery is clad in weathered-steel panels and capped by clerestory windows. The gallery can open to the lobby and entry courtyard for events.

LMN said there was no dedicated performing arts facility on the island before the center.

It expands the campus of Vashon Allied Arts, which is in the historic Blue Heron Arts Center. Two acres of adjacent wetlands were restored for an interpretive center and sculpture garden, making the campus now five acres.

The performance hall is a cast-in-place concrete box. LMN said the hall is designed so amplification of music is not needed, but can be used.

The project is targeting LEED silver.

Rain gardens and landscaped swales provide biofiltration for adjacent wetlands, and the roof collects rainwater for the rain gardens and a cistern used for toilets.

The project team also includes Lund Opsahl, structural; CDi+Mazzetti, mechanical; Stantec, acoustical, electrical, lighting; AHBL, civil; C&N Consultants, cost estimating; Murase Associates, landscape architect; and The Shalleck Collaborative, theater.

LMN is also working on the Bainbridge Performing Arts Center concept design and the Federal Way Performing Arts & Event Center.