Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1983 - 30

Civic Center of Onondaga County
Syracuse, ew York
Owner: Onondaga County
Architect:
McAfee Malo Lebensold Nichol
Theatre Consultant:
Robert Brannigan Associates Inc.
Acoustics Consultant:
Russell Johnson Associates
Structural Consultants:
Snyder-Burns & Associates
icholet - Dressel- Mercille
Mechanical/Electrical Consultants:
Robson & Woese, Inc.
Langlois - Crossey - Bertrand, Inc.
Completion: January, 1976
Seating Capacity:
2117 Concert Theatre
464 Carrier Theatre
300 Community Room
Expected Use: Multiple use
The Civic Center is the first facility to be
built on the North American continent
that combines government offices and
performing arts facilities under one roof.
While this was done as an economy
measure, the visual and functional identity of the offices and the arts have been
preserved as separate entities. This
building, inaugrated January 15, 1976,
cost approximately 525,000,000, and includes a sixteen story office tower for
Onondaga County functions, a 2117seat Concert Theatre, a 464-seat Carrier
Theatre, a 300-seat Community Room,
and offices for seven Syracuse performing arts organizations. 0 breakouts of
the cost of the performing arts portion
of the building have been computed. Indeed, because of the way the spaces assigned to the county office are intermingled with the space devoted to the
theatres, it would be almost impossible
to provide a meaningful breakdown of
building costs. All three performing facilities were designed with maximum
flexibility and ease of operation as a
criterion. The combination of the three
facilities allows a full range of programming possibilities from symphony orchestra to community meetings.
The Carrier Theatre, with its 46.+
seats, is an open theatre space of the
end-stage format, a rectangular room
ideally suited for recitals, drama work·
shops and children's theatre. This thea~8

Theatre Design &

Technolog~

tre is equipped with 10 movable winch
sets for scenery and light handling. A
full complement of draperies and a portal to form a proscenium is available.
Flexibilry includes a small area of traps
which can provide a very modest orchestra pit, and acoustical curtains on the
side walls. The lighting system for this
theatre is a 128 preset solid state
"MOS" memory system, with 120
2.4 kW SCR dimmers and 120 lighting
circuits.
The Community Room, the smallest
of the three facilities, a flat floor rectangular room of the "black-box" format, has many uses. In addition to a rehearsal studio, the character of the space
can be altered with the addition of seating risers and loose chairs, making it
ideal for meetings, recitals, drama workshops, etc. It has two technical galleries,
a chain link grid 23 feet above the floor,
and acoustical curtains on the walls.
Concert Theatre
Civic Center of Onondaga County
Syracuse, New York
The Concert Theatre, the largest of the
three facilities, designed 10 house
musical comedy, ballet, symphony and
opera, incorporates the latest techniques
in stage rigging. lighting and electro
acoustics.

USITT Fall 1983

The stage house is equipped with 80
counterweight sets. The grid is 78'6"
above the stage floor. All of the stage
house below the elevation of 40 feet i
used as a reverberant chamber when the
concert shell is rigged. The selling time
for the fully automatic concert shell is
under 30 minutes for the complete enclosure. The concert shell includes fourteen castered sound-reflectors, each
10'0" wide and 24'0" high.
There are two hydraulic lifts in the
forestage area. They can be used to
make a forestage that is 18 feet deep or
28 feet deep. At other times they can be
used to form an orchestra pit of 570
quare feet, 625 square feet, or 1200
square feel. With the overhang area, the
maximum pit area can be further expanded to 1800 square feel. When utilized for audience seating, the upstage Ii fl
accommodates 75 seats and the downstage lift accommodates 92 seats.
The reverberation time of the audience chamber can be adjusted by approximately 7000 square feet of mOlOroperated double-layer velour banners.
These are stored in the atIic pace when
not in use. The sound control console,
built by Ward-Beck of Toronto consists
of two consoles, an effects console and
a reinforcement console, which can be
switched to serve as an integral console.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1983