Berkeley High School’s Building A houses the 3500 seat Community Theater and a 560 seat Little Theater in addition to classroom and support spaces for the school’s premier Visual and Performing Arts programs. Completed in 1950, the building is listed as a contributor to two historic districts for its Art Deco style. However, the interior’s severely worn condition exhibits decades of use with few upgrades, while the cramped classroom spaces and oversized Community Theater no longer adequately serve the students, faculty, or surrounding community.
CAW and its design team have undertaken a planning study to develop a long-term renovation plan for the Theater Building that will return it to use as a vibrant, safe, and accessible environment for performing arts and technical stagecraft students and for the community. The first step in the study was a comprehensive assessment of the building conditions to identify necessary building systems upgrades, determine required seismic strengthening, and discern the shortcomings and potential of the academic and performance spaces in terms of functionality and accessibility.
The team has worked closely with the user group to develop design solutions which address not only the building’s basic deficiencies, but also the future needs of the thriving performing arts programs. Design challenges facing this project include creating new classrooms and rehearsal spaces for music, drama, dance, and technical stagecraft programs by taking advantage of the square footage in the existing building envelope, improving the function of the two performance spaces to better serve the performers, technicians, and audience members, and enhancing the building’s presence on the high school campus by enlivening the building’s front door while securing the campus from public entrance.
