Kimberly Corbett Oates

This performing arts center replaced the significant Fine Arts Auditorium on campus. The building includes a 1,000-seat auditorium and music rehearsal rooms with planning for a future recital hall.

While primarily used for music performances, including the Valley Symphony Orchestra, the center also supports dance performances, especially folkloric dance with mariachi accompaniment.

Schuler Shook provided full theatre design services and architectural lighting for the theatre, main lobby, grand stair, second floor lobbies, first floor side gallery spaces and the building façade.

Walton Arts Center greatly expanded and modernized their facilities to be able to more easily fulfill their mission as a major community arts center. Schuler Shook provided theatre consulting and architectural lighting design services.

The McAllen Performing Arts Center hosts a variety of Broadway shows, Valley Symphony Orchestra, local music and popular entertainment acts, dance, and dramatic productions for McAllen and the Rio Grande Valley. The theatre seats about 1,800 patrons on three levels and features a generously-sized stage, orchestra pit with lift, motorized/ counterweight fly system, programmable Venetian-style valance, orchestra shell, motorized adjustable acoustic curtains, and extensive theatrical lighting. Schuler Shook provided full theatre design services and architectural lighting for the performing arts theatre.

Ballet Memphis’ studio space replaced an abandoned French Quarter hotel located in Overton Square. The building is approximately 30,000 SF and includes five studios, community spaces, costume shop and offices. The building features large windows where passerby’s are able to watch ballet dancers and students rehearse.

Named in recognition of its neighborhood, the Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston is better known as MATCH. The nonprofit group was formed expressly to create new space where artists around Houston could come together to collaborate and present their work. The MATCH facility is custom designed with input from over 40 arts groups. The resulting structure contains four performance venues referred to as MATCH boxes located in two buildings — North and South — connected by a sweeping breezeway to the plaza. MATCH supports dance, music, theatre, visual art, film, performance art, and others in the new facility.

Each ​“box” is slightly different. MATCH Box 1, a flexible theatre with seating for 100 in the round, has white walls that allow it to easily serve as an art gallery. Blackout curtains help return it to a performance space. MATCH Box 2 is an end-stage dance theatre with a permanent resilient dance floor and seating for 159. MATCH Box 3 can seat about 140 and is a more traditional black box theatre. MATCH Box 4, an end stage proscenium space with seating for 329, has catwalks for theatrical support and adjustable acoustic curtains. Boxes 1 through 3 feature pipe grids for overhead support. 

The performing arts center at the Lone Star College — Tomball campus replaced a smaller performance facility and provides students and faculty with a fully outfitted space for theatre education and performance. 

Schuler Shook provided theatre consulting services for a 425-seat multi-purpose theatre with orchestra shell for music concerts. The theatrical equipment includes 16 single purchase counterweight sets and seven motorized lineshaft rigging sets, adjustable acoustic curtains and orchestra pit with filler platforms. Schuler Shook also designed the theatrical lighting systems and advised on the seating.