TROY, N.Y., Dec. 12 (UPI) -- A $142-million media and performing art center is being built in Troy, N.Y., the most ambitious of three such centers being planned nationwide.
The Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, to be built on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will create opportunities for artists, scientists, students and community audiences to encounter and influence one another, according to Rensselaer President Shirley D. Jackson.
It will include a 1,200-seat concert hall, a 400-seat theater, two large studies, and suites for artists in residence. The architects are Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners and Davis Brody Bond, both of New York, and center is set to open in the spring 2007.
The Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C., will build a $77 million, 800-seat theater a short distance from its smaller home in the Lansburgh Theater, to which it will be linked as a performing art center, according to plans by Diamond & Schmitt Architects. It also will open in 2007.
The Nashville Symphony has broken ground for a $120 million symphony center, due to open in the fall of 2006. It will be named the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in honor of the orchestra's longtime conductor, Kenneth Schermerhorn.
