Berkeley Carroll, a college preparatory day school located in Brooklyn, recently expanded their campus to include a 396 seat performing arts center. An 80 year old church was renovated to create a space that can be re-arranged for a variety of purposes. Working with the theatre consultant Fisher Dachs Associates, IWEISS was contracted to provide a pipe grid that spans the entire room, to provide mounting for lights, speakers, or scenery for any performance. The grid is also available for hanging the drapery package IWEISS also fabricated for the school. This grid was designed to coordinate with a layout of sound absorbing panels that add to both the function and aesthetic of the room. Coordination was a big factor in this project, as all structural support for the grid has to be installed in the church’s attic, with limited visual reference to the exact location of the grid and panels below.
A small grid with a bi-part draper was also installed on the “stage” area opposite the large seating area, and large floor to ceiling drapes travel the full length of the walls on either side of the room, to mask the large decorative windows that are original to the church.
