Wahiawā Performing Arts Theater

Community theaters play a very important role in urban communities, and serve a set of very specific functions with their design and program. Over the course of the semester we will investigate these functions, speculate on the future of the community theatre, and design and share design visions in individual design projects.

From an architectural perspective, the earliest theaters can be traced back to the amphitheaters of ancient Greece. These open air structures hosted a multitude of events and a variety of functions, with a central stage surrounded by tiered seating. Contemporary theaters are typically enclosed, come in a wide variety of forms and sizes, and host additional program spaces that support their community and the performing arts.

Our semester-long project will take us from a warm up exercise to familiarize ourselves with the scope of work, to research, and finally to individually developed designs that can be shared with the community which will serve as a jumping off point for an ongoing community project taking place through the UH Community Design Center.

Client: State Foundation on Culture and the Arts
Principal Investigator: Lance Walters
2025 ARCH 416 students: Jian Bo Chen, Naomi Cheng, Sin U Cheung, Tiana Nicole Mangrobang, DElle Martin, Austin Mutter, Branden Nakagawa, Edwin Sun, Grace Taheri, Danielle Timoteo, Joshua Tolentino, Areyn Mikhel Undan, Skyler Lee Wright, Jingsong Zhou