George C. Izenour
George C. Izenour Assoc., Inc., 16 Flying Point Rd., Stony Creek, CT 06405
Except for a dozen or so of the largest urban centers, it is an undisputed fact that the raison d'etre for design of multiple-use facilities for the performing arts in municipalities of smaller size and relative wealth in the USA is an economic necessity for capital as well as for operational funding. Solutions to this many-faceted, much-disputed design problem vis-a-vis owners, architects, and consultants have been and continue to be many and varied. Overall two schools of thought have emerged. One is continuation of the traditional static architectural approach inherited from the high baroque. The other originated and developed by this consultant and favoring instead a dynamic engineering approach is firmly rooted in modern times. This paper is a discussion of the author's flexible engineering approach to this problem in this genre. How his practice was motivated by ever-more stringent budgetary concerns, he utilizes five buildings illustrated by 30 slides in plan and perspective section as the high points of 30 projects in this genre, in as many years, undertaken by his firm. The paper concludes with a tabular analysis of these five buildings vis-a-vis: seating capacities, total project costs, per seat costs and variation in reverberation times.