Architects

REX | OMA

Location

Dallas, USA

Executive Architect

Kendall/Heaton Associates

Theatre Design

Theatre Projects Consultants, Connecticut

Key Personnel

Joshua Prince-Ramus (Partner-in-Charge) and Rem Koolhaas, with Erez Ella,

Vincent Bandy, Vanessa Kassabian, Tim Archambault

Consultants

Cosentini, DHV, Donnell, Front, HKA, Magnusson Klemencic, McCarthy,

McGuire, Pielow Fair, Plus Group, Quinze & Milan, Theatre Projects, Tillotson
Design, Transsolar, 24

Mep/Fp Design Engineer

Transsolar Energietechnik, Germany

Mep/Fp Engineer Of Record

Cosentini Associates, New York

Structural Engineer Of Record

Magnusson Klemencic Associates, Seattle

Ada

McGuire Associates, Massachusetts

Furniture

Quinze & Milan, Kortrijk Belgium

Lighting

Tillotson Design Associates, New York

Client

The AT&T Performing Arts Center

Acoustics

Dorsserblesgraaf, Netherlands

Construction Management

McCarthy Construction

Cost

Donnell Consultants, Florida

Graphics/Wayfinding

2 x 4, New York

Life Safety

Pielow Fair, Seattle

Vertical Transport

HKA, California

Area

7700.0 sqm

Project Year

2009

Photographs

Iwan Baan

Manufacturers

A. Zahner, B-K Lighting, Bartco Lighting, Bega, Custom Metal Craft, DalTile,
Designplan Lighting, Garaventa Lift, Industrial Acoustics, Ives, Kawneer,
LCN, Lucifer Lighting, McKeon Door, Mid-American Elevator Company, Mobley
Speed, Modernfold, Moroso, PPG IdeaScapes, PPG Pittsburgh Paints, Piper
Weatherford Company, Soprema, Special-Lite, Strand Lighting, TISI, TXI, Tate
Access Flooring, Tremco, Tretford, Trimco, Von Duprin, W&W Steel, WE-EF,
Woodhaus

+20
From the architect. The Dallas Theater Center (DTC) is known for its
innovative work, the result of its leaderships constant experimentation and
the provisional nature of its long-time home. DTC was housed in the Arts
District Theater, a dilapidated metal shed that freed its resident companies
from the limitations imposed by a fixed-stage configuration and the need to

avoid harming expensive interior finishes. The directors who worked there
constantly challenged the traditional conventions of theater and often
reconfigured the form of the stage to fit their artistic visions. As a result, the
Arts District Theater was renowned as the most flexible theater in America.
The costs of constantly reconfiguring its stage, however, became a financial
burden and eventually DTC permanently fixed its stage into a thrustcenium.
Save this picture!

 Iwan

Baan
Imagining a replacement for DTCs old house raised several distinct
challenges. First, the new theater needed to engender the same freedoms
created by the makeshift nature of its previous home. Second, the new
venue needed to be flexible and multi-form while requiring minimal
operational costs.

Save this picture!

Iwan Baan
The Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre overcomes these challenges by
overturning conventional theater design. Instead of circling front-of-house

and back-of-house functions around the auditorium and fly tower, the Wyly
Theatre stacks these facilities below-house and above-house. This strategy
transforms the building into one big theater machine. At the push of a
button, the theater can be transformed into a wide array of configurations
including proscenium, thrust, and flat floorfreeing directors and scenic
designers to choose the stage-audience configuration that fulfills their
artistic desires. Moreover, the performance chamber is intentionally made of
materials that are not precious in order to encourage alterations; the stage
and auditorium surfaces can be cut, drilled, painted, welded, sawed, nailed,
glued and stitched at limited cost.

Save this picture!

Stacking the Wyly Theatres ancillary facilities above- and below-house also
liberates the performance chambers entire perimeter, allowing fantasy and
reality to mix when and where desired. Directors can incorporate

the Dallas skyline and streetscape into performances at will, as the

auditorium is enclosed by an acoustic glass faade with hidden black-out
blinds that can be opened or closed. Panels of the faade can also be opened
to allow patrons or performers to enter into the auditorium or stage directly
from outside, bypassing the downstairs lobby.
Save this picture!

Iwan Baan
By investing in infrastructure that allows ready transformation and liberating
the performance chambers perimeter, the Wyly Theatre grants its artistic
directors freedom to determine the entire theater experience, from audience
arrival to performance configuration to departure. On consecutive days, the
Wyly Theatre can produce Shakespeare on a proscenium stage or Beckett in

a flat-floor configuration silhouetted against the Dallas cityscape. Both

learning from, and improving upon, DTCs original Arts District Theater, the
Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre will restore Dallas as the home of the most
flexible theater in America, if not the world.
Save this picture!

Iwan Baan

Iwan Baan

Iwan Baan

Iwan Baan

Iwan Baan

Iwan Baan

Iwan Baan

Iwan Baan

Iwan Baan

Iwan Baan

Iwan Baan

flat floor plan REX

thrust floor plan REX

concept diagram REX

proscenium floor plan REX

eight floor plan REX

Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact
address.
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See more:

ProjectsBuilt ProjectsSelected ProjectsTheaterDallasCultural

CenterCulturalUnited States

Cite:

"Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre / REX + OMA" 13 Jul

2011.

ArchDaily

. Accessed

29 Jun 2016

<http://www.archdaily.com/37736/dee-and-charles-wyly-theatre-rexoma/>

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