SUNY Fredonia Rockefeller Arts Center

The 40,000-square-foot addition houses classrooms, large art studios, a dedicated set fabrication shop, dance studios with a convertible performance space, and faculty offices. The building’s superstructure is conventional steel framing with composite slab on deck. Cast-in-place concrete shear walls located at the elevator cores provide the majority of the lateral resistance.

The design team reconfigured the 60,000-square-foot existing building to allow for the addition of digital labs and drafting studios, while the northwest theater entrance was reorganized to connect it to a new cafe. The expanded Rockefeller Arts Center (RAC) also includes a corridor connecting the building to the School of Music, which allows personnel to move between the buildings safely and comfortably during inclement weather. The project is LEED Silver certified.