Boora Architects

The Collin County Arts Center is the most significant quality of life investment in Collin County, Texas, currently home to 660,000 citizens and revealed by Census 2000 as one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. Collin County shares a characteristic with other fast-growing suburbs -- it lacks a significant venue for cultural offerings, requiring that citizens drive to Dallas for these opportunities. The Collin County Arts Center provides a cultural facility close to home for county residents.

The regional complex will be located on a 120-acre site in Allen, Texas.  Long used for farming, the site features light vegetation and beautiful eroded limestone, a result of the hydrological force of Rowlett Creek, which crosses the sloping site.

A master plan developed by Boora with landscape architects Hargreaves Associates guides all building on the site which will be completed in phases. The master plan calls for the site to be developed as an arts park, with the creative programming intended for the buildings spilling into the outdoors.  The majority of the arts center development will sit on the relatively level terrain of the site’s west side.

Phase 1 of the arts center development will include a 2100-seat multi-use performance hall for national and international touring acts and local and regional arts organizations. Phase II will include a 750-seat mid-sized theater and an education building housing a visual arts gallery, several arts education classrooms, and a 200-seat studio theater. All spaces will have corresponding support spaces. Future phases will include sculpture gardens, an amphitheater, a festival street, perimeter roadways, and a network of pedestrian paths.

The 2,100-seat multi-use performance hall will feature daylight and natural finishes inspired by materials found on the site.

The design team has created a defined central space at the heart of the arts complex to provide a focal point for the site and a shared gathering space, mitigating the potentially divisive effects of the exchange parkway and Rowlett Creek. The Meadow will offer the best views of the site and the surrounding landscape. The placement of arts center buildings along its northern and western edges will define its form. Extensive automobile parking behind these buildings will be organized into pods or parking and landscape rooms, breaking up the wide spreads of parking.