Sarasota Orchestra reveals conceptual plan for new music center

As it continues with its design work for the Sarasota Orchestra Music Center, architecture firm William Rawn Associates on Wednesday unveiled its conceptual design for the project on Fruitville Road just west of Interstate 75.

Evoking the Sarasota School of Architecture’s mid-century style, the concept shows gradually sloping rooflines, high glass walls and an open courtyard connecting separate entrances to the 1,800-seat main performance hall, 700-seat recital hall/flex space and the education center. 

“The courtyard is really the heart of this campus,” Rawn Associates Principal Doug Johnston told the Observer. “Each of those venues — the main hall, the recital hall and the education wing — has lobbies that have front doors on that courtyard. It's almost as if each of their lobbies is like a front porch that opens onto the courtyard and creates a connectedness to the three distinct pieces; separate but very much connected.”

Located on the orchestra’s 32-acre site at 5701 Fruitville Road, the project's cost estimate is between $375 million and $425 million.

Courtesy image

The conceptual rendering shows the common entry point set behind a reflective pond, part of the surface water management system of the entire site. Upon approaching, the main theater is to the left and the education building to the right, book ending the recital hall.

The concert hall is the principal attraction, and although the schematic design phase remains in its infancy, Rawn Associates Principal Cliff Gayley offered a detailed description of the patron experience upon entering the lobby outside the "shoebox" design delivering optimal acoustical conditions.

Image courtesy of Alan Karchmer

“There will be multiple ways in and, depending on where your seat is, it will be quite intuitive how you get from the front door to where you want to go,” Gayley sad. “We want to make sure that your passageway to your seat is not only intuitive, but very accessible. When you do have to change levels, we've got a robust number of elevators. And then once you go into the hall, we will have aisles and cross aisles so you don't have to cross over and apologize to 30 people to get to your seat.”

According to a news release, the juxtaposition of the spaces is symbolic. “Natural light plays a key role in the design, visually connecting the Orchestra’s dual pillars of education and performance,” it reads. “Educational spaces are bathed in morning light of the east, while performance spaces glow in the evening, symbolizing the evolution from student to professional.”

“It's very purposeful that the courtyard has three parts of the program fronting it,” Rawn Associate Principal Kevin Bergeron told the Observer. “It’s really important to elevate the education wing an equal status and make the connection between the growth of young musicians and the performance spaces.”

Based in Boston, Rawn Associates is partnering on the music center with executive architect HKS of Orlando, acoustician and theatre planner Stages Consultants of Highland Park, New Jersey, and Houston-based OJB Landscape Architecture. 

While now having the conceptual design will aid in its music center capital campaign, orchestra CEO Joe McKenna said fundraising is well underway, including $60 million spread among two gifts from a single anonymous donor.

The timeline for the new facility is to break ground in early 2027 and opening in time for the 2029-2030 season.

First will come multiple stages of schematic design refinement.

“The next stage is really where a lot more definition starts to come in terms of textures, materials, colors and the like,” said Johnston. “The basic forms are taking shape now and over the course of the next stages of design you'll start to see more detail come into this and really a sharper focus on what all the experiences, both inside and outside the hall, will be.”

In April 2023, the Orchestra acquired its site on Fruitville Road from Walmart Stores East LP for $14 million. The music center will be the first acoustic concert hall on the Gulf Coast and one of only four acoustic concert halls in Florida, joining New World Center in Miami Beach, Knight Concert Hall in Miami and Steinmetz Hall in Orlando.