The
new Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
at Bard College encompasses approximately 110,000 square
feet and includes an 800-seat multi-purpose performing
arts hall and a 200-seat concert hall, a lobby/gathering
area, box office, stage and performer support spaces,
security office, loading dock and drama/dance rehearsal
studios. Designed by world-renowned architect Frank
Gehry, the center was developed to meet the College’s
needs for additional, more sophisticated instructional
and performance space, and is also part of a larger
effort to promote New York’s Hudson Valley as
a cultural/tourism destination point.
The project presented numerous engineering challenges,
chief among them energy conservation and the need to
design and locate MEP/FP systems so as not to visually
compromise the project’s unique architecture.
Having worked successfully with Gehry Partners previously
and most notably on the highly acclaimed Guggenheim
Museum in Bilbao, Spain, the Cosentini team was able
to readily develop engineering designs and to meet this
challenge. Instead of a conventional cooling tower system,
Cosentini engineered a geothermal system for the project
(considered to be the first one in the country to be
developed for a new performing arts facility). This
system utilizes the ground as a heat sink by using geothermal
wells (commonly known as a geothermal heat exchanger
system). It conserves considerable energy and is easy
to maintain. Also, it eliminates the need for cooling
towers which can negatively impact a project’s
architecture as well as the environment because they
reject chemically treated vapor into the air.
Innovative thinking was also critical to the engineering
of the project’s main theater. As a multi-purpose
area, this theater is equipped with an enclosed acoustical
shell consisting of acoustical wall towers and ceiling
that can be removed or reconfigured to accommodate different
performances. Cosentini’s solution was to integrate
the air supply system into the acoustical wall towers
to make it possible for quick connection of supply air
flexible ducts into the main duct when the acoustical
shell mode is activated. Cosentini also performed Computational
Fluid Dynamics analysis for air distribution in the
main theater to determine optimal environmental conditions
(temperature and air velocity).
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