Wyong Shire

Open House Tour of Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts, Orlando, FL (11/9/14)

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• published: 13 Nov 2014
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The Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts is located in the heart of downtown Orlando. This is more than a venue. It is a performing arts complex, with two theaters already built and one to be completed in stage two. Other plans for the art center include shops and a hotel on site. The performing arts center is not just a building; it is an education and creative hub, city builder, and community family room. The Center will propel exposure, interaction, and participation for every walk of life; from those in the far reaches of Central Florida, to those just blocks way – where people of all ages can explore and learn about the arts. The newly opened $500 million facility will send those craving cultural sophistication into a state of bliss. Comprising almost 9 acres on two blocks in downtown Orlando, it is within easy access of the East-West Expressway. After parking your car, you'll walk along the Seneff Arts Plaza and experience a small urban park with chairs you can move around to suit your fancy at the moment. The space also could become the setting for occasional performances or presentations. Approaching the 330,000-square-foot building, you will pass through towering glass doors which open wide like welcoming arms to a grand staircase that leads your eyes up the five stories, beckoning visitors to explore more deeply its offerings; and further delights with smart design details. An airy feel pervades this "vertical circulation" thanks to the capacious atrium design. Each floor has its own lobby, so to speak, with bars and sweet little rests inviting visitors to perch their drinks on wide glass ledges. Glass walls add to the airy design, welcoming both sunlight and the nighttime excitement of downtown Orlando. A mammoth color-morphing "Wave Wall" jutting up through the back half of the atrium announces the major performing arts space. The Walt Disney Corporation donated $12.5 million to the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center. This 2,700-seat auditorium is sumptuously designed with regal blue seats. Scalloping balconies lift your eyes from the orchestra to the ceiling's breathtaking flight of fancy, with a set of sails launched upward suggesting a clear blue sky. The visual excitement continues with the 300-seat Alexis & Jim Pugh Theater. Considered the center's "black box" theater, this space is far from the conventional and, quite literal, black box. Instead, it offers a combination of permanent and moveable seating set off by fanciful brushed stainless steel design elements embedded with clear marbles that catch the light and invite imagination. On the ceiling, an array of bright and colorful panels of painted glass warms the room. Future plans include a 1,700-seat acoustic theater, which will become home to the Orlando Ballet and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to the performance venues, the Dr. Phillips Center includes space for its School of Arts; the large DeVos Family Room, which offers rentals; rehearsal rooms and spaces for commercial development. And it's not just the patrons who have been considered in the free-flowing design. Where back of the theater space is usually dark and purely functional, the Dr. Phillips Center has "The Alley," another area with an airy atrium feel. Dressing rooms, rooms for makeup and hair, catering and costumes, flow easily beyond the stage door. A third-floor small classroom with glass walls will give visitors, especially curious youngsters, an exceptional glimpse of the action in the loading dock. They can see the large trucks pull up, unload their cargo of costumes and scenic units and haul them backstage. The Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts is a non-profit and a public-private collaboration with the City of Orlando, Orange County, the State of Florida and generous private donors. It began as a vision in the late 1970s. With a roller-coaster economy, the center was a political hot potato for years. Construction began in 2011. The ribbon cutting was November 6, 2014. The Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts is at 445 S. Magnolia Avenue, Orlando, FL. For more information, call 844-513-2014 or visit www.drphillipscenter.org