Interdisciplinary collaboration is key for the new Windgate Center for Fine & Performing Arts at the University of Central Arkansas, now officially open

CONWAY, AR —University of Central Arkansas President, Dr. Houston Davis, broke the Center’s seal to kick off the official opening of UCA’s new 100,000-sf Windgate Center for the Fine & Performing Arts, which included tours, performances, and exhibitions. The event is the first in “Ovation,” an eighteen-month-long series of events celebrating the new facility. The Center merges the University’s performing arts and visual arts programs into a single, synergistic Arts campus, while creating a new northern gateway for the entire UCA campus.

Photo by Jacob Slaton / Whatever Media Group

As a direct comparison to UCA’s previous facilities for the Arts, the Center is a double-win for UCA’s Arts programs, with a marked improvement in both quality and adjacency. Outdated spaces in six existing campus buildings will be replaced and/or augmented in the new facility. UCA’s already thriving music, theater and visual arts programs will be supported for the next generation of education and excellence. In a world where inter-disciplinary work is increasingly valued in both the arts and sciences, the project gives UCA a competitive advantage compared to partner institutions.

The project transforms a previous surface parking lot to a vibrant northern gateway and connection between the UCA campus and Downtown Conway. The Arts have traditionally provided an important connection between “town” and “gown.” In this spirit, the design of the Center emphasizes openness and connectivity. The facility has two prominent public faces: southward toward Thompson Hall and Northward toward Downtown Conway.

The building’s Central Axis is the soul of the project, equal parts arts-student hangout, UCA campus passage, and performance-night event space. Built on a slashing line that connects UCA to downtown Conway, the Axis provides an internal street/landscape which is a front door to the largest and most outward-facing elements of the Center’s program: The Concert Hall, The Gallery, The Black Box, and the large Flex/Rehearsal room. This space fulfills many roles: For the University, it’s an invitation to pass through between classes. For Arts Students, it’s a day-to-day hangout space with a social seating stair that invites interaction and communication. And on performance nights it can transform to be a dressed-up pre-function space in the spirit of traditional performing arts centers. The energy of this main circulation spine expands to an equally logical network of spaces on two floors and outward to the landscape.

Directly off the Central Axis, the Concert Hall has been designed to create a warm and rich environment. Its steeply raked seating and variety of seating boxes create an intimate relationship between audience and performer. The interior is inspired by movement; the balcony fascia linework reflecting the movement of energy in the room, all situated within a forest of heavy timber glu laminated structures that recall the ledges and trees of the Ozark Mountains. Natural wood and integrated lighting elements create a dynamic experience under the canopy.

The aesthetics of the project bring together two sympathetic yet contrasting factors: the traditional elegance of UCA’s campus, and the exuberant expression of the arts programs within. The Center ennobles the existing campus with a south façade that complements Thompson Hall, while adding a bold public face—marked in a multi-story glass skin—that invites entry. This public gesture is repeated along the north façade, extending the reach of UCA’s campus to the north.

Pfeiffer, a Perkins Eastman Studio, is a design firm of architects, interior designers and planners with offices in downtown Los Angeles and New York City, and 24 affiliated studios worldwide. The firm works nationally and internationally, with an emphasis on cultural and educational projects that range from new arts facilities to the renovation of notable landmarks, for both public and private clients.