Paul Stevens, Senior Principal

The cafetorium is at one end of the atrium space where it occupies a very prominent position and faces the urban side of the streetscape. It’s circular shape is interesting and provides some acoustical advantages.  When it is used as a cafetorium or auditorium, the round shape helps distribute the sound more evenly throughout the room. This shape is also reminiscent of an enclosed theatre space.  Towards one end is a 2-sided stage, which is connected to a theatre arts/performance area behind.  This provides a great deal of programming flexibility as small performances can be done from the theatre arts side and larger performances from the cafetorium side.

We designed the room with a flat floor as opposed to the expected steeped raised floor because we wanted to maximize the capacity in its cafeteria mode to minimize the number of lunch periods that need to be scheduled.