The Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts is a facility for incubating cross-disciplinary projects, a cornerstone of academic studies at Brown University. The center supports short- and long-term merit-based work proposed by students and faculty in the visual arts, performing arts, sciences, and humanities. It serves all Brown University schools and departments yet is possessed by none. Conceived as an infrastructure for catalyzing collaboration across fields of study, the center forms a nexus for all academic disciplines.
The building is an evolution of the loft typology: it is made up of long-span column-free floor plates, severed in two and slipped vertically to create half levels. Each half level has a specific technical capacity and a different level of material finish, ranging from raw to refined. The levels include a recital hall and film screening facility, a recording studio, a gallery space, classrooms, shop spaces, a multipurpose hall, and a dance studio. These sheared spaces are separated by an internal glass wall that visually connects each studio with two others, one above and one below, allowing glimpses into the messy creative processes unfolding within while still allowing light, sound, and views to be individually controlled. A common stairway threads through the building to connect all levels; its oversize landings form breakout spaces for serendipitous encounters, organized meetings, small social gatherings, and installations.
The west side of the center adjoins the Walk, the university’s central circulation spine. The landscape shears to connect the building to the campus. One side is inclined toward the entrance lobby, while the other half descends along the rake of the recital hall. Students and passersby are invited into this informal amphitheater to watch screenings and performances. While the building’s west façade reveals internal activities through a glass curtain wall, the other sides are enveloped by an opaque zinc skin that is pleated and lifted at its corners to admit light into offices and support spaces.
