The Humanities Building at SUNY Purchase complements the school’s performing arts center by offering students who are not arts majors an opportunity to gain performance and production experience.
Kliment Halsband Architects undertook a gut renovation of Venturi & Rauch’s 1973 Humanities building, transforming it functionally and visually. The renovated facility includes offices, 29 classrooms and several specialized spaces. Kirkegaard worked on the audiovisual for the classrooms and provided audiovisual and acoustics consulting for a 207-seat drama theater, a 107-seat lecture hall, and a TV/broadcast studio.
Kirkegaard worked closely with K/H/A on the drama theater, which reused the original raked floor and reworked everything else. The transformed theater is more intimate, supportive and functional, balancing flexibility with simplicity. Acoustic “clouds” are positioned over the audience to provide supportive reflections. Custom perforated panels at the side and rear walls give the room an understated elegance. The panels have varying degrees of perforation depending on their location, providing stronger or weaker acoustic reflections as needed.
The TV/broadcast studio includes a soundstage for video and audio recording, with a green screen for chroma key shooting. The control booth provides video switching and graphic production capabilities. A nearby audio editing room is equipped with a digital audio workstation.
