Thomas Jefferson’s venerable design for the University of Virginia serves as the backdrop for a new Performing Art Center and the McIntire Department of Music. As a performance venue, the Center’s heart is a 1200-seat multiform theatre, capable of adapting to multiple configurations including concert hall, proscenium stage, theater-in-the-round and banqueting and cabaret. The hall will be the first multiform theater in an academic setting in the world and is inspired by Jefferson’s spirit of innovation and commodity. As a result, the University will be able to accommodate a wide range of diverse programs and seat counts, making the venue a year round attraction as well as a unique educational tool.

Spatially, the Performing Arts Center’s major volumes are separated by gardens, which reduce the mass of the building while allowing interstitial gardens and natural light into the interior of the main building, thus reinforcing a Jeffersonian principle of diversity through uniformity.