Bora helped reimagine the Garrison Theater, Scripps College Performing Arts Center building–an iconic but massive and opaque mid-century movie theater–embracing its iconic stature and surrounding spaces to bring students into the future. The new facility engages the historic campus’s language of spatial intimacy and seamless interior/exterior connections.

Echoing the College’s pattern of courtyards, we created a series of smaller-scale pavilions to flank the existing building and form a new courtyard at a humanized scale to make the space feel comfortable and practical. The pavilions contain faculty studios, a music library, and a new 110-seat recital hall, each featuring extensive glazing to connect the interiors to the exterior gardens.

The rejuvenated Garrison Theater now stands as a contemporary and invigorated 690-seat venue where students can enjoy music and engage lectures augmented by an open ceiling and diffusive wall panels for a rich, full sound. Showcased in the center of the historic Scripps campus, the project elevates the performing arts while giving the music department a celebrated new home.