Plans for The New World Symphony’s expanded venue blur the lines between performer and audience. Currently based at Miami’s Lincoln Theater, NWS was founded by Michael Tilson Thomas to train top young musicians for orchestral careers. The new 90,000 sq. ft. campus will include a 700-seat concert hall, and a multi-purpose room that will serve both as the primary teaching space for the orchestra and a pre-concert space for lectures and donor events. A number of other rehearsal and teaching classrooms, along with public lobby spaces, backstage support and administrative offices will also be included. The entire facility will be wired with Internet2, which is 100,000 times faster than the broadband in use today and will facilitate broadcasts, Internet transmissions and long-distance learning techniques already utilized by the symphony.

More than an innovative design or a state-of-the-art facility, this performance space is going to envelop people in experience. The symphony will play in a room wrapped with a collage of suspended, overlapping projection screen panels that will function to enhance orchestral performances with informational video content, video scenery, vocal text translations and digital-video compositions or projected “sets” for musical-theatre works. The main-floor seats can also be removed allowing for a dozen possible performance modes.

Every event in the new space will be digitally recorded through one of the 3 Protools recording suites and the HD video production room, allowing all content to be accessible to the students via the campus network; making this one of the most advanced educational tools for training concert musicians. On the exterior of the building is a 40’ wide projection surface which will face the Gehry-designed public park for outdoor viewing for passersby on their way to restaurants and clubs and encourage new audience members to drop by and see what’s going on within.

AD provided design services for all audio and video systems, which were closely coordinated with the inspirational architecture, theatrical lighting and rigging, stage machinery, and acoustics.