Alfred University, Miller Performing Arts Center
The Miller Performing Arts Center housing the programs of music, dance and theater which had formerly occupied separate and rapidly deteriorating buildings, is located at the focal end of the main campus cross street on a steeply sloping site. The design of the building addresses issues of the site by placing the smaller individual spaces of practice, costume design, workshops visibly along the pedestrian scaled street and the larger recital and dance studios with soaring height spaces and windows on the side with distant views of the valley. The 32,000 gsf building has at its center a flexible theater, a 55 x 55 foot square performance space seating 250 spectators with a catwalk and lighting grid above. An adjoining scene shop can also be used for proscenium stage performances.
Other facilities provided are 3 rehearsal halls, double height spaces with tall windows, practice rooms for music, instrumental storage, music library, design studio, faculty offices and exhibition space. A grand staircase on one side of the building connects the levels and activities of the Center. At the exterior, the simple sloped form of the building is clad in red brick and enlivened by the different scale and shape of the windows of the two main facades and the prominent descending window of the staircase on the side elevation.