New performing arts center for Cal State Northridge

Along with strengthening its nationally accredited music and theater programs, the new California State University, Northridge Performing Arts Center will be a destination for those seeking exciting arts experiences, like symphony, opera, pops, and Broadway performances. Designed by Minneapolis-based HGA Architects and Engineers, the facility will include a 1,700-seat, multipurpose professional performance hall with concert-quality acoustics, a 250-seat black-box theater, a 150-seat lecture room, as well as lab, rehearsal, dressing room, and recording spaces. The center will also become the new front door of the campus, welcoming students and the public to CSUN.

HGA's design incorporates sinuous wood ribbons that radiate from the stage, wrap the balcony fronts, and embrace the hall. Stainless-steel sheets of crinkled, folding mesh wrap the rear of the hall and are lit to sparkle and shimmer as patrons find their seats. These scrims hide the adjustable elements that allow the acoustical transformation to fit various performance genres.