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Seismic shift: a gymnasium on the UCLA campus is sensitively revitalised to house dance and theatre.


The Northridge earthquake The Northridge earthquake occurred on January 17, 1994 at 4:31 AM Pacific Standard Time in the city of Los Angeles, California. The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude of 6.  of 1994 was a blessing in disguise for UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles
UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University)
UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX
, causing no catastrophic damage, but allowing the university to claim emergency funding for repairs and seismic upgrades. That helped pay for the replacement of postwar structures that had become dysfunctional. Michael Palladino, a partner of Richard Meier, reconstructed the art school, and I.M. Pei designed a new medical centre, which will open next year. The original eight buildings of the campus, which were built in 1928-32 as concrete-framed, brick-clad variations on Italian Romanesque, are being restored and sensitively remodelled, one by one. Moore Ruble Yudell, which was recently honoured by the American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Organized in 1857, the Institute conducts various activities and programs to support the profession and enhance its public image, including periodically awarding the AIA  as Firm of the Year, did an exemplary job on the Powell Library and the Law School, and has topped these with its transformation of the former Women's Gymnasium into a centre for dance. Renamed Glorya Kaufman Hall (for the major donor), it houses the interdisciplinary Department of World Arts and Cultures (WAC WAC (Women's Army Corps), U.S. army organization created (1942) during World War II to enlist women as auxiliaries for noncombatant duty in the U.S. army. Before 1943 it was known as the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC). Its first director was Oveta Culp Hobby. ).

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The architects refurbished the listed exterior with its monumental south facade, created secondary entrances to the north and west, and added a dance pavilion at the corner of the rear courtyard. Glass walls at front and back of its wood stage make this pavilion a window onto the courtyard, drawing passers-by and an audience that sits on the grass. A curved canopy seems to float over clerestories above the stage, and a collage of patterned brick is wrapped around this and the other subtly expressed additions, tying them into the original fabric of the building.

Inspired by choreographed movement (his mother trained with Martha Graham), partner-in-charge Buzz Yudell turned a building that formerly blocked connections into a processional route, opening up the labyrinthine lab·y·rin·thine
adj.
Of, relating to, resembling, or constituting a labyrinth.



labyrinthine

pertaining to or emanating from a labyrinth.
 interior while keeping the best of the old structure. A light-filled concourse links the three entries and leads out to the neighbouring buildings. A new rotunda rotunda

In Classical and Neoclassical architecture, a building or room that is circular in plan and covered with a dome. The Pantheon is a Classical Roman rotunda. The Villa Rotonda at Vicenza, designed by Andrea Palladio, is an Italian Renaissance example.
 and skylit stair hall speed circulation among the ground-floor classrooms and offices, and double as gathering and informal performance spaces. Versatility is also the hallmark of the upper-level main theatre, which was created within the shell of the former basketball court, and the studios that flank it.

'No more black boxes', declared Peter Sellars, the iconoclastic i·con·o·clast  
n.
1. One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions.

2. One who destroys sacred religious images.
 director and member of the WAC faculty. He proposed a warm, wood-lined space that would be as appropriate for sacred ritual as for experimental theatre; 'soundstage meets Shinto shrine'. MRY MRY Monterey Peninsula Airport (California)
MRY Monterey / Carmel, CA, USA - Monterey Peninsula Airport (Airport Code)
MRY Moore, Ruble, Yudell Architects and Planners (Santa Monica, California) 
, working with Theatre Project Consultants, gave him exactly that: a cubic 300-seat auditorium with three levels of galleries on all sides that can be easily reconfigured. Elegant folding chairs are mounted on retractable re·tract  
v. re·tract·ed, re·tract·ing, re·tracts

v.tr.
1. To take back; disavow: refused to retract the statement.

2.
 bleachers that slide back into storage voids to clear the entire floor area. Lighting, scenery and a proscenium proscenium

In a theatre, the frame or arch separating the stage from the auditorium, through which the action of a play is viewed. In ancient Greek theatres, the proskenion was an area in front of the skene that eventually functioned as the stage.
 can be suspended from steel I-beams at any point in the room. The maple floor has four sprung levels and a cavity to insulate sound from the classrooms; the same timber is used for the fronts of the galleries. The original bowed ceiling was cleaned and the steel trusses strengthened, but the concrete structure survived the quake intact.

One of the adjoining studios retains its original rose window and lofty vault, giving it the character of a deconsecrated de·con·se·crate  
tr.v. de·con·se·crat·ed, de·con·se·crat·ing, de·con·se·crates
To make (a church, synagogue, or temple, for example) no longer consecrated.
 chapel, and a new rehearsal space was created on what was formerly a covered roof terrace, employing curved glu-lam beams and an opening to pull in natural light. Here and throughout the building, there is a sense of harmony and movement, weaving together the varied threads of a complex programme. Much of the $35 million budget was spent invisibly--on seismic upgrades, improved access for the handicapped, mechanical services, and a dizzying array of electronic technology.

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Author:Webb, Michael
Publication:The Architectural Review
Geographic Code:4EUUK
Date:Feb 1, 2006
Words:624
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