The Durham Performing Arts Center is a 2,800-seat Broadway-style theater, co-developed and designed by Philip Szostak, FAIA of Szostak Design. DPAC is the largest venue of its kind in the Carolinas and built for a total project cost of $46M, less than half the price of comparable venues elsewhere in the country. The theater accommodates touring theatrical companies, concerts, locally produced performances and serves as the primary stage for the American Dance Festival.
Hailed for its aesthetics, crisp acoustics, intimacy and excellent sightlines, DPAC is a skillful marriage of a highly efficient performance space and a dramatic, multi-level glass-clad lobby. The house and its support areas are gracefully cradled within the adjoining urban fabric, abutting an existing multi-story garage and a newly constructed hotel. In contrast, the public lobby reaches outward into its surroundings, a gesture that is energetically expressed on the theater’s three street frontages, accentuating vistas to the American Tobacco Campus and the Durham skyline. Two finely detailed staircases wrap the building’s perimeter and animate movement up and through the lobby.
DPAC has quickly become a catalyst for the revitalization of Durham’s central business district, spurring economic development and transforming the city into a regional center for culture, the performing arts and entertainment. The project is the first phase of a master plan that rehabilitates a former municipal bus maintenance facility, forging a powerful connection between a burgeoning arts and entertainment district and the heart of downtown Durham. Projects activated by the presence of DPAC include the six-story Aloft Hotel, a multi-story, mixed-use residential and office development, and numerous new retail and restaurant establishments. Ancillary development spurred by DPAC is estimated to total over $300 million in the coming decade.
Since its opening, DPAC has entertained over 3 million guests with over 200 performances per year. The theater is consistently ranked top 5 in national attendance rankings, and Triangle Business Journal has listed DPAC as the #1 performing arts organization in the region for four consecutive years. Net revenues generated by the building - 40% of which are shared with the City of Durham - rose from $1.3M in 2009 to $5.3M in 2015. According to the Durham Visitor and Convention Bureau, DPAC accounted for a total Durham direct visitor spending in 2014 of $66.3 million and an overall annual economic impact exceeding $48 million.
DPAC has been the recipient of numerous awards including a 2004 Mid-Atlantic Region AIA Merit Award; a 2009 Golden Leaf Award; a 2009 Honor Award from AIA North Carolina; a 2009 American Woodworking Institute Award of Excellence and a 2011 AIA Triangle Merit Award. Also in 2011, DPAC was named as a recipient of SEED certification, an international recognition for the advancement of social, economic and environmental design.
In an August 20, 2010 City of Durham press release, Durham Mayor William Bell lavished praise on DPAC for its contributions to the vitality of the city stating: "...we've had great performances, great shows and a great facility in terms of the way it looks, the way it feels and the employees that work there. The success is astounding, especially given the economic conditions that the city, state and country [have been] facing."
Michael Schoenfeld, Duke University's Vice President for Public Affairs, calls DPAC "one of the most significant additions to the city in recent memory, enhancing the quality of life for everyone who lives in Durham and making Durham a premier destination for people who are interested in the arts and culture."
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