The Lindemann Performing Arts Center, located centrally in the Perelman Arts District at Brown University, opened on Saturday, October 21.
The opening of the 101,000 sq-foot facility, designed by REX/Joshua Ramus and managed by Brown Arts Institute (BAI), marks a watershed moment for the arts on Brown’s campus, as it prepares to host a range of internationally renowned artists and inaugurate a new chapter of expanded academic and artistic programming.
Interweaving innovative design, year-round arts programming, and gathering and rehearsal spaces, The Lindemann aims to increase accessibility to cutting edge artistic resources to further cultivate a community committed to the arts.
Through its five radically different preset spatial, acoustic, and technical configurations designed to accommodate a variety of performances, installations, and programs—Experimental Media, Recital, End Stage, Orchestra, and Flat Floor.
The facility is able to accommodate Brown’s varied creative communities and fill a need for state-of-the-art performance, rehearsal, and teaching spaces to serve the University’s arts departments, ensembles, and student arts groups.
The Lindemann’s fluted aluminum façade is intersected by a stage-level “clearstory” that reveals the interior of the main floor in every direction, welcoming passersby to witness and engage with the creation of art in the space and providing views of Infinite Composition, a site-specific, dynamic light installation by internationally acclaimed artist Leo Villareal.
Adjacent to other arts-centered academic facilities in the campus core, The Lindemann’s location will establish a hub of creative activity on campus, as it hosts year-round programming, rehearsals, research-focused courses, collaborations, community partnerships, and BAI commissions.
Incorporating a new performance typology, invented by REX’s design team during their work on this project, all six surfaces of the hall (floor, ceiling, and four walls) modulate physically and/or acoustically through automated and manually assisted performance equipment.
Below street level, three spaces designed for music, theater, and dance will enable students, faculty, and visiting artists to create cutting-edge, original artwork in flexible, well-equipped studios.
Each includes a control room and customizable equipment, allowing the rooms to function as studios, classrooms, and performance spaces where artists and scholars can engage in experiments, fabrications, installations, and speculative projects.
Brown University marked the opening of The Lindemann with a ribbon-cutting on Saturday, October 21, kicking off a year-long celebration of the arts at Brown that includes the launch of the inaugural IGNITE Series.
Organized by BAI, IGNITE showcases a diverse array of offerings from across the Brown Arts ecosystem, including projects by students, student groups, faculty and departments, Brown alumni, Brown Arts Institute collaborations with other campus units and visiting artists, as well as projects by local and regional artists and arts organizations. Source by REX.
- Location: 144 Angell Street, Providence, USA
- Architect: REX
- Founding Principal: Joshua Ramus
- Project Team: Adam Chizmar, Maur Dessauvage, Sebastian Hofmeister, Joshua Ramus, Kevin Thomas
- Acoustical Consultant: Threshold Acoustics
- Vibration Consultant: Acentech
- MEP Engineer: ARUP
- Sustainability Consultant: Atelier Ten
- Cost Management Consultant: Cost+Plus
- Specifications Consultant: CSI
- Fall Arrest Consultant: Diversified
- Façade Consultant: Front
- Geotechnical Engineer: GEI
- Code, Fire Protection, & Life Safety Consultant: Jensen Hughes
- Lighting Design Consultant: L’Observatoire International
- Consulting Structural Engineer: Magnusson Klemencic
- Structural Engineer of Record: Odeh
- Security & IT Consultant: Skyline
- Vertical Transportation Consultant: Soberman
- Building Commissioning Consultant: Stephen Turner
- Landscape Architect: Stimson
- Signage & Wayfinding Consultant: Studio Loutsis
- Theater Design & Stage Equipment Consultant: Theatre Projects
- LEED Consultant: Thornton Tomasetti
- Acoustical & Audio/Video Consultant: Threshold Acoustics
- Civil Engineer: Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Woodard & Curran
- Construction Manager: Shawmut Design & Construction
- Leadership: Christina H. Paxson, President, Brown University
- Avery Willis Hoffman, Artistic Director, Brown Arts Institute
- Size: 101,000 sf
- Year: 2023
- Photographs: Iwan Baan, Courtesy of Resnicow and Associates
