Mercersburg Academy – Burgin Center for the Arts

New $16.5 M, 65,500-SF arts center with 600-seat multi-use performance auditorium serves a 430-student college preparatory boarding school.  The Center’s main performance venue/theatre features a fully-rigged fly tower and an adjacent scene shop.  Additional center spaces include a 120-seat black box studio theatre, an instrumental rehearsal room/recital hall, a choral rehearsal room, dance studios, art studios and music teaching studios. 

Acoustic design centered on the main performance theatre and music spaces.  The instrumental rehearsal room/recital hall and the choral rehearsal room incorporate adjustable acoustics elements in the form of simple manually-retractable heavy velour curtains, providing for a cost-effective means of adding flexibility. Sound isolating construction was carefully designed to be sensitive to the project’s construction budget.