The McGrath Family Performing Arts Center / Krueck Sexton Partners

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Text description provided by the architects.The McGrath Family Performing Arts Center at Loyola Academy is designed to promote Jesuit educational values and to inspire the creativity and imagination of students. Conceived in close collaboration between school leaders, students, and the design team, initial project development focused on understanding common goals through Ignatian pedagogy. In early design meetings, the client leadership posed fundamental questions: “How can the theater bring the Jesuit mission to life? How can it transform the campus and contribute to an enlightened academic experience for all students?” Crafted to intentionally resist easy answers, these questions drove the team’s architectural response and became the foundation for the success of the project.The resulting venue has made the McGrath Family Performing Arts Center a cultural destination and a source for collaboration with outside non-profit organizations, having direct impacts that feedback into Loyola’s curriculum.Unique moments punctuate the experience, such as a balcony-level “bridge” that allows users to look to the lobby and down the gallery simultaneously in a theatric play of observer-turned-actor. A curvilinear curtain wall allows space to flow from the entry to the quad in a way that balances its preference toward the lobby and the exterior stage – a negotiation that regulates program needs and provides a deep protective overhang.  It is conceived as a canvas for experiences, surprise, and joy.The material palette creatively deploys simple, natural finishes in an economical way. In the theater house, raw CMU blocks are precisely rotated to refract acoustics while creating a spectacular shadow play that invites curiosity. Gallery walls – though often merely drywall and concrete – are detailed to create compositional textures and display surfaces within public spaces. Embodied carbon reductions (up to 56% reductions in the enclosure/structure assembly) drive material selection and minimization and contribute to the sustainable story of the project, reflecting Pope Frances’ ‘Laudato si’ – “Care for Our Common Home” – and further teaching Loyola’s values by example.Second, the building is conceptually flipped inside-out by creating an outdoor stage at the main lobby – a dais for student expression from which the arts can be shared publicly with the entire student body. This design feature connects the project symbolically to the Chiesa del Gesù in Rome, home of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Third, the project centerpiece – a 560-seat, state-of-the-art proscenium theater – provides essential educational programming and promotes unprecedented engagement between the school and its broader community, as an essential part of its mission which has already impacted its educational and emotional programming.The Center thrives on the balance of economy and specialness, with authentic experiences and details punctuating its identity.  It is visually defined through a palette of local materials, contextual with its soft and neutral tones – a decision that creates a backdrop for student activities where the art, performances, and quad are the focal points.  The organization of spaces is straightforward and regular, with a structural steel grid that coordinates with the precast volumes – structures that directly respond to spatial requirements for the stage and theater.Programming conversations between the design team, students, and school leaders led to key decisions that connect the building to its Jesuit roots and will have lasting impacts on the campus. First, placing the addition on the northeast corner of the campus frames a new outdoor “quad” as a byproduct of the fine arts addition.  This outdoor space is a center for the student body, bringing all together in a three-season space that is protected acoustically from the adjacent interstate expressway and thermally from prevailing winds. This focus on open, outdoor space teaches that good design is not just what is built, but also what remains unbuilt – a direct reflection of Loyola’s ethos of “Be more.”