Cultural Centers

  • Zach Scott Topfer Theatre

    Zach Scott Topfer Theatre

  • Texas State University Performing Arts Center

    Texas State University Performing Arts Center

  • TFC Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building

    TFC Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building

  • Waldorf School Performing Arts Center and Athletic Building

    Waldorf School Performing Arts Center and Athletic Building

Cultural centers enrich our society by promoting the arts, history, religion, and heritage of diverse cultures. Communities, municipalities and universities invest in this enrichment by building performing arts centers, museums, worship centers, heritage centers and libraries. Our goal with any cultural center is to work with the client to find aesthetic, functional solutions that lead to an unforgettable experience for visitors of the center.

Cultural centers can be structurally challenging, requiring the need for large open spans and unique loading conditions. One example is the minimal use of columns in order to provide unobstructed views of a stage or pulpit, which creates large concentrated loads on the foundation. When designing performing art centers with a Proscenium stage, rigging systems used to lift and position lighting, audio, video, scenery, special effects and related items must be considered in the overall design and can create significant challenges in connection design.

In the last few decades communities have begun to solicit the help of architects and engineers to restore the historical styles of their existing cultural centers while taking the opportunity to implement current trends as well as safety and accessibility codes. Structures utilizes our knowledge of historic materials and construction practices as well as methods from our extensive adaptive reuse portfolio to provide solutions for implementing these modifications while preserving the architectural intent.

  • Zach Scott Topfer Theatre

    Cultural Centers, Government

    At 420 seats, the new Topfer Theater at ZACH has more than double the capacity its previous largest theater. This...

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  • Performing Arts Center

    Cultural Centers, Higher Education

    This new performing arts center is the main community arts venue in San Marcos. The Music Recital Hall and Theatre...

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  • De Zavala Library & Archives

    Cultural Centers, Government

    The Texas Facilities Commission Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building rehabilitation project included programming and historical restoration of...

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  • St. Mary’s Cathedral

    Cultural Centers

    St. Mary’s Cathedral is an iconic limestone Victorian Gothic structure, originally designed in the 1870s by architect Nicolas Clayton. The...

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  • Waldorf School

    Cultural Centers, K-12

    The aim of Waldorf schooling is to educate the whole child, head, hands and soul. Dance and play are not...

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