Ravinia Festival Experiential Theater & Dining Bridge

Highland Park, IL, United States

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Ravinia Festival Experiential Theater & Dining Bridge

Highland Park, IL, United States

Firm

michael c barnes architect, pllc

Type

Hospitality + Sport › Restaurant Bar/Nightclub
Cultural › Hall/Theater Museum

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2019

SIZE

10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft

BUDGET

Undisclosed

Ravinia Festival is ostensibly a multi-facility venue for music concerts. But because the largest events are performances in an open-air pavilion, most attendees listen while picnicking and socializing throughout the park grounds. So, while music is the reason for being there, food and drink and spending time with family and friends are just as much a part of the experience. As new generations patronize Ravinia, they bring unique preferences for music and dining. To enhance dining offerings and to attract more families, Ravinia sought to expand its outdoor foodservice offerings and create a new venue that would introduce patrons to, or remind them of, connections between classical and contemporary music.
The well-received 2007 Dining Pavilion, by the same designer, served dining and take-away options to patrons successfully, but Ravinia saw a desire to revise offerings, provide more social drinking opportunities, and expand provision of elevated outdoor space for those activities. Additionally, they had long sought an exhibits facility to elevate patrons’ appreciation and understanding of music’s long and rich history. This project was the culmination of those objectives, and the architecture was designed to not only achieve those functions, but to delight the users and enhance their music, dining, drinking, and socializing experience.
The solution to Ravinia’s objectives began with updated spaces in a reconfigured interior for the Dining Pavilion, with its biggest impact being the addition of the outdoor elevated deck, designed in harmony with the original building. “The Porch” was designed to architecturally complement the existing building through similar materials such as sustainably harvested wood and metal columns, as well as through the continuation of the building’s horizontality and other features. At the same time, the canopy introduced a more organically inspired column expression as a complement to the architecture.
Then, to attract families, educate children, and increase appreciation for music’s history, a new building, the “RaviniaMusicBox” experiential theater, was built and connected via a bridge to “The Porch.” As part of the theater building, a new bar terrace features colored lighting and provides a unique vantage point overlooking the seating lawn. Inside, the facility offers an immersive multi-media experiential theater and exhibit galleries. For architectural continuity, the building features many of the same materials, modulation, horizontality, and features of the Dining Pavilion and its deck, but its design is also unique, providing a distinct identity, reflecting the curvature of other Ravinia buildings, and evoking the shimmering leaves of trees on its rainscreen exterior walls. Its plan takes visitors on a timed-sequence experience through exhibits, with glass-enclosed gallery space and roof terrace contributing to the social nature of Ravinia.
Team Members
Ravinia Festival: Client
michael c barnes architect, pllc: Design Architect
Wight & Company: AOR & Structural Engineering
BRC Imagination Arts: Exhibits Designer
Calor Design Group, Ltd.: MEP Engineer
SmithGroup: Civil Engineer & Landscape Architect
Threshold Acoustics: Acoustical Engineering
S2O Consultants, Inc.: Foodservice Design
Schuler Shook: Exterior Lighting Consultant
W. B. Olson, Inc.: General Contractor