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Education Colour Maestro Award winner
Sacred Heart College Performing Arts Centre

Lower Hutt

This project provides Sacred Heart College with a 600 seat Performing Arts Auditorium and supporting spaces creating a performing arts hub within the heart of the school that also invites wider community involvement. The design combines new and existing facilities providing multi-use foyer spaces that connect to the existing music suite and restore a historical connection to Bellevue Road.

Opus Consultants were commissioned by the Mission Colleges Lower Hutt Trust Board and Sacred Heart College in March 2010 to develop, design and monitor construction of a new Performing Arts Centre with a 600 seating capacity, to replace an existing hall constructed in 1957.

The location of the new Performing Arts Centre within the campus required construction to be undertaken between three existing buildings, and over an existing piped stream running directly under the construction area, imposing significant seismic requirements for isolation and geotechnical stability. The use of expansion joints between each of the existing structures and the Auditorium makes it a seismically independent building that allows for movement in the event of an earthquake. Height restrictions meant innovative solutions were needed to provide the seating capacity.

The new Performing Arts Auditorium can be used in a number of different modes due to the combined use of a raised stage with undercroft, a sprung flat floor and fixed raked seating providing flexibility for both school and community use.

For the exterior a neutral colour palette was chosen to complement the eclectic mix of the existing building materials while still allowing the new building to have its own identity. The exterior Titan panels on a cavity batten system are painted in a multi-toned pattern with Resene Quarter Surrender, Resene Eighth Stack, Resene Stack, Resene Fuscous Grey and Resene Double Stack.

The side walls of the Auditorium have been ‘pleated’ to minimise sound ‘flutter’ across the space. This ‘pleating’ has been articulated by using a multi-tonal palette of Resene Half Tuna, Resene Tuna, Resene Double Tuna, Resene Half Stack and Resene Breakfree. These tones have been chosen to both complement the timber handrails, Beech flooring and Matai acoustic panelling and to signal the school colours and tradition.

Resene Quarter Surrender	Resene Eighth Stack	Resene Stack	Resene Fuscous Grey	Resene Double Stack
Resene Half Tuna	Resene Tuna	Resene Double Tuna	Resene Half Stack	Resene Breakfree

The existing Matai sprung floor was removed from the hall and re-used as an acoustic and decorative feature across the complex to provide a connection between past and present. The panels have been used for the Proscenium Arch and side walls in the Auditorium, Valarie Lawson foyer and lift shaft in the Bellevue Foyer, protected with Resene Aquaclear Satin. Where acoustic modelling of the auditorium required sound absorption, the panels have been designed to incorporate an acoustic backing. Areas of the panels under the stage have been designed to act as a return air grill for the mechanical ventilation.

The existing faceted Hardiflex walls in the Valarie Lawson foyer have been repainted using a multi-toned pattern of aqua blues (Resene Hullabaloo, Resene Fountain Blue and Resene Morning Glory) to add colour and interest to this space. The existing concrete stairs to the first floor of the Music Building have been modernised by replacing the existing with a new glass balustrade, stainless steel handrail and black powdercoated aluminium fascia.

In the Bellevue foyer we originally specified Resene ArmourCat 822 (spray application) for the feature panels. However as the panels were so large it was decided it would be better to paint these in-situ. As the white acoustic panels had already been installed to the upper ceiling we could not risk overspray to finished work so we worked with Resene to develop a suitable specification that could be rolled in-situ. Resene Lustacryl semi-gloss waterborne enamel was selected in vibrant shades of red and burgundy (Resene Livewire, Resene X Factor, Resene Breakfree and Resene Courage). General interior areas are finished in Resene Wan White with doors and exposed steelwork in Resene Fuscous Grey.

Resene Hullabaloo	Resene Fountain Blue	Resene Morning Glory	Resene Livewire	Resene X Factor
Resene Breakfree	Resene Courage	Resene Wan White	Resene Fuscous Grey

Acoustic consultants: Marshall Day
Architectural specifier: Opus Architecture
Building contractor: Mackersey Construction Ltd
Client: Mission Colleges Lower Hutt Trust Board
Custom auditorium seating: Miles Fowler, Merje
Fire engineering: National Consultant Ltd
Interior designer: Opus Architecture
Painting contractor: First Choice Decorators
Photographer: Michael Heydon, Jet Productions
Project management, structural, geotechnical and building services engineering, planning, transportation: Opus International Consultants
Quantity surveyors: Rawlinsons
Theatre consultants: Shand Shelton