Center for the Arts opens new additions

The Boone Sculpture Garden, a longstanding montage of the arts at PCC, has a new attachment at the end of it for the community to enjoy this coming month.

The newly finished Adrienne Westerbeck Recital Hall and the Black Box Theater await audiences behind a grand walkway.

Measure ‘P’ Director Jack Schulman led the way to the new additions, with construction workers on either side.

Looking up, oak ceilings lined with circular skylights were overhead. Giant metallic columns stood on either side of the back entrance to the Center for the Arts.

“This is the money entrance,” Schulman said.

Yellow caution tape guarded a newly varnished oak floor that sloped down to bamboo-covered walls of the nearly ready recital hall.

Caramel colored pulp studio fabric-paned windows line the walls behind the 220 seats inside the hall, where many events will be hosted in the new addition of the Center for the Arts.

“I picked the fabric myself,” Director of Facilities Rueben Smith said, smiling as he touched a pane yet to be installed. “The original fabric that was in Europe was no longer available when we were ready to finally order it.”

The college had to switch contractors since one went bankrupt last year, which delayed the Center for the Arts and especially its two new installments.

It’s been a long wait for the most highly anticipated additions to the center, according to Schulman.

“The original pushed deadline for completion was July eighth this year,” Schulman said while surveying the ceiling in the recital hall. “It’s just gorgeous,” he commented.

And also sustainable.

According to Schulman, the two new additions, which will be completed on Thursday, were built to meet a Leed Gold sustainability rating, something difficult to achieve.

“We used highly sustainable materials,” Schulman said. “The bamboo faced panels are sustainable because it grows so fast and it grows everywhere. We are capturing run-off [water] from the tops of the building to be reused in the building.”

At the Black Box Theater, black reinforced concrete lines the outside walls. Within, an intimate dark room that seats up to 99 people is lined with black bricks. The stage is level with the first row of the audience.

“It’s an intimate setting,” Smith said. “The audience gets to see performances up close here.”

Smith, who has a background in sustainability, wanted to make sure the building met high standards in renewable energy.

“It’s a gorgeous and green building,” he said.

Not only are the new additions sustainable and beautiful, but they are also high-tech.

Jim Arnwine, dean of performing arts and communication arts, raved about the recital hall’s recording abilities.

“The new recital hall has capabilities for multimedia purposes,” he said. “We now have the capability to record all of our events. I’m very excited to see what we can do when it opens.”

Arnwine is not the only one anxiously awaiting the official opening of the recital hall, which is in a few short weeks.

Many members of the Pasadena community have already made reservations for the hall and the theater, according to Smith.

“The mayor plans to have his state of the city address here in January,” Smith said. “We are all very excited for these additions.”