An article in the Sunday New York Times describes a collaboration between architect David Rockwell and choreographer Jerry Mitchell. Together, they conceived the structure and flow of the new JetBlue Airways terminal being built at Kennedy International Airport. The intent of the collaboration was to create a space that encourages people to move well.
The project led them to explore productive public spaces around New York. Among them, Radio City Music Hall’s Grand Foyer offered a recurring theme of the power of interior architecture in directing individual and social behavior:
Individual behavior is only part of the story; the Grand Foyer also alters the behavior of crowds, who instinctively know how to use it. Much as a dancer doing pirouettes keeps her eyes focused on a reference point so she won’t get dizzy, visitors, without even realizing it, use the room’s precisely deployed architectural signposts — stairway, chandelier, mirrors, doorframes — to align themselves and stay on track. As a result, Radio City can pull 5,900 people through its lobby without contusion or confusion; more than that, it does so with the theatricality and orderliness that you might imagine at a formal ball.
Rockwell and Mitchell had worked together before on several Broadway shows — The Rocky Horror Show, Hairspray, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels — where Rockwell’s set designs had framed and influenced Mitchell’s choreography. The extension of the collaboration into massive public space seemed a provocative next step. We’ll know how well it worked when the facility opens in 2008.
In the meanwhile, it’s striking to realize how little such work is done in cultural facility design and construction, where public spaces are generally less about helping patrons find their way through the building, and more about large pools of people (just see, for example, how many ushers it takes to direct people to the correct theater entrance, or how many people in a lobby look confused). Elegant public spaces tell you how they should be used, while also letting you find your own way. You would think cultural organizations would be the first to recognize this fact.
We may be stuck in the assumption that the lobby or foyer is just a holding room for the true experiential spaces in our buildings — the galleries and theaters that hold the art. But, as Mitchell comments in the Times article, the distinction between the functional space and the creative space many not be as dramatic as we think:
“Is it an airport? Is it a Broadway show? What’s the difference?”
Come on, you’re being a little hard on facility designers, Andrew. Designers of museum facilties and museum exhibits think hard and long about optimal uses and traffic patterns for new museum spaces. This is especially true for museums where group visits comprise a significant portion of total attendance.
There is an entire discipline for this – it’s called operations! Hospitals, schools, and even some arts facitilities that have about $0.13 left in their capital costs budgets usually take advantage of them. Alas, it’s more consultants and typically really expensive ones…
I agree with Karen. I have been at the table during PAC design meetings where my sole purpose was to represent the operators perspective. Most of the time the architects were right there beside me and when they weren’t, they welcomed my feedback and frequently made adjustments. One architect even measured out a space in his office to test an elevator vestibule size. He had a bunch of us join him to see if it would be too small or impede traffic. The committment is there.
Yes, the architect’s primary goal is to create a significant building, and sometimes their attention to operating details takes a backseat to the visual aspects of the project. But, a good design TEAM acknowledges this and creates a forum where these issues aren’t left behind.
Andrew, it’s good to see this type collaboration happening in an airport, but I think it already exists in arts venue projects today. The question of operational success lies not just with the architect, but with the team of experts on these projects. The resources are there, it’s just a matter of having a strong leader build the best team. While this isn’t always the case, the spirit of collaboration is there and deserves to be recognized.
Thanks Karen, Kate, and Amy…
Great comments, all. Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh on cultural facility design process and the teams that move them forward. My own experience in watching these teams work (admittedly, a limited view…but involving several projects) has been that few people on the team advocate for the audience or attendee — whether newcomer, unindoctrinated visitor, or loyal power user — in the design and development the non-arts space.
The art spaces and performance venues themselves are fabulous, for the most part. Here I’m talking about the non-art spaces — entryways, lobbies, foyers, rotunda, ticketing areas, hallways, and so on.
Again, perhaps it’s just my limited experience, but even the operations team within the organization often tends to focus on supporting their existing culture and business practices rather than rethinking them from the consumers’ perspective. Witness the awful and anachronistic box office spaces STILL being built in performing arts venues. I’ve seen extraordinary operational and design consultants driven to distraction by the entrenchment of current front-of-house and sales staff, unwilling to reconceive the way their functional space should work.
I’m so glad to know that my perspective isn’t the dominant one, and that others have had a different experience in the facility design process. Clearly, I need to get out more.