Chicago Lyric Opera Fall 2O12 Location: Ogden Plaza, Chicago, Illinois, USA Team: Daniel Allen, Chinonso Ike, Hannah Kramer Project Description: In teams of three, design a new opera house for the Chicago Lyric Opera. Two different site options were available: Wolf Point and Ogden Plaza. My team chose Ogden Plaza because of its location as a more central pedestrian hub. Our focus was on creating a rich auditorium that was subtle enough not to take away from the performance. We accomplished this by lining the walls with rich but darkly-colored wood akin to the Copenhagen Operaen and giving the chairs a dark red velvet material. This dark, rich auditorium contrasted the lighter jewel box lobby area that encased it. Everything about the materiality suggests a gradient from public to private spaces. The diamond windows around the lobby grew smaller and more sparse as the opera house transitioned from public foyer to private backstage. The form of the building with its glass lobby quite literally symbolized the theater as a cultural gem in the city. This jewel would shimmer during the daytime and glow during the nighttime. The terraced plaza designed around adjacent to the opera house created a journey for the opera-goers: the patrons must ascend up toward the pinnacle jewel that is the opera house, the highest point on the site. Lush planter boxes and an urban orchard created interest along this path up to the opera house.
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