renovation

Scripps College Performing Arts Center

Claremont, CA

Scripps College Performing Arts Center

Claremont, CA

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.

Size

46,000sf

Recognitions

Merit Award, AIA Portland
Merit Award, IIDA Oregon Chapter
Excellence in Design Award, City of Claremont
Architectural Commission

Collaborators

Auerbach Pollock Friedlander
McKay Conant Brook
GLUMAC
KPFF
Mayer/Reed
Tovey/Shultz Construction