HEBB THEATRE

interior renovation, seismic & acoustic upgrades

firm: Urban Arts Architecture location: UBC, Vancouver, BC client: UBC date: January-April 2015

Hebb Theatre is a sciences lecture hall at UBC, originally designed and constructed in a period of high modernism. It had sadly fallen into a state of disrepair, while also needing to be upgraded seismically and acousitically.

I was tasked with creating a cohesive plan to update the interior throughout, including documentation of the existing space, opening and brightening the lobby, selecting new surface finishes for the desk seating areas, and to work with the acoustic engineer to create a solution to the echoey main hall that was both visually appealing and more durable than the existing wall treatments.

We decided that the sunken lobby area, originally intended as a coat room and washroom access, and barred from the doors and glazing by a beautiful wood screen, should become a collaborative study lounge. The screen was cut in two and relocated to both prevent views into the washrooms and frame the new backlit whiteboard and tv screen.

The stepped area and two side nooks received new wood millwork seating while an acoustically backed metal ceiling slat system was installed at the upper level. The blue colour and wood theme was extended into the lecture hall itself, where a protective and decorative perforated ply panel was installed over a new, more extensive, fabric acoustic panel system. The design on these panels was created with consultation with staff in the science department to choose imagery that both resonated with the excitement of the atomic age while also staying "timeless" in a field known for debunking it's past truths. In the end, a stylized pattern reminiscent of magnetic fields was chosen and adapted to ensure the ideal opening percentage identified by the acoustic consultant and coordinated for efficiency of production by the CNC shop.