Gardner Theatre

Location
Lancaster PA

Institution
Lancaster Country Day School

Design Architect
Centerbrook Architects

Executive Architect
Murray Associates

Acoustician
Acentech

Owner’s Project Manager
JPD Architects

Construction Manager
Wohlsen Construction Company

In late 2017, Centerbrook Architects and Murray Associates had just completed a new athletic center for Lancaster Country Day when the school asked them to design a new theater addition. Centerbrook recruited Nextstage Design to develop a multipurpose theater space to meet the school’s diverse needs—from music recitals, to Shakespeare Camp, to school assemblies. The owner and design team, through a collaborative and iterative design process, developed a scheme that satisfies the programmatic, aesthetic, and budgetary needs of the school. The new theater seats 580 and has an orchestra lift, full stagehouse, and state of the art LED lighting.

Users
Lancaster Country Day School
Local performing arts groups

Construction Type
New construction

Square Feet
16,000

Cost
$13 million

Completion
2021

Spaces
580-seat multipurpose theater

Photography © Peter Aaron