Crossland High School
- Type: New
Auditorium Addition
- Size/Area: 21,866
SF
- Owner: Prince
George’s County Public Schools
- Location: 6901
Temple Hill Road, Temple Hills, MD 20748
Crossland High School's vibrant performing arts program
required a new state-of-the-art venue. SEI Architects designed the new 23,000
SF addition to the existing school to include an auditorium, black box theater,
dressing rooms, and a multi-use grand lobby. The 850 seat auditorium was
designed for optimum sound quality using appropriately located acoustic
materials for diffusion and absorption as well as acoustic redirection using
the curved wood ceiling clouds.
A goal of the auditorium addition was to create a venue that
was distinct while still being cohesive with the existing building design. The
theatre program offered particular massing challenges to avoid a large box
feel. Therefore, SEI used a variety of materials and distributions of volumes
on the facade to articulate a series of smaller volumes that better addressed
the human scale.
The building massing also was a challenge for sustainability
goals due to a lack of penetrations for natural lighting and solar orientation. Designing
for LEED Gold certification required creative sustainability solutions including
maximizing open space, appropriate stormwater management design, efficient
water landscape, optimizing energy performance, using enhanced commissioning,
construction waste management, using recycled content, regional and
low-emitting materials and incorporating green cleaning and education.
