With a theater and dance program ranked among the top in the country and with facilities long outdated, CSUF was in dire need of new spaces that would be commensurate with the quality of their faculty and programs. Our team planned, programmed, and designed the Clayes Performing Arts Center to connect to the existing performing arts building and serve as terminus to an emerging arts precinct. The facility also establishes a new identity for the university’s music, theater, and dance programs.

Designed to be flexible in use, highlights of the project include an 800-seat concert hall, a 250-seat thrust-stage theater, a 150-seat black box theater, a rehearsal hall, three dance studios, 10 artist dressing rooms, two green rooms, a state-of-the-art audio lab, a lighting lab and storage, a 6,000-sf scene shop, a costume shop, associated performer support space, educational and administrative support spaces, a multi-level lobby, and a new parking structure adjacent to the center.

This project was planned, programmed, and designed by Pfeiffer prior to joining Perkins Eastman.