Thinking
How we see the world
Field notes, performance reviews, project diaries, and essays from the principals and staff of H3. Published when we have something worth saying.
2026
Postcard
Moby Dick is eyeing you!
Robert Wilson's last work, done with great subtlety and beauty by the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus at the BAM Opera House. How did they get the hair to go sideways?
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Ragtime at the Beaumont
LCT restaging this 1996 canonical work about America before WWI. So much time, so little change . . . .
Field note
Food and beverage in theaters or the eternal fight over cupholders!
There are two types of performance theaters - the ones with cupholders and those without. It's hard to find new theaters without the little brass ring on the seat in front of you - it sure beats having to mop up the concrete floor after every performance. Ten years ago Broadway introduced collectible sippy-cups to bring your $27 glass of Chardonnay to your seat. And don't forget the free-refill at intermission for an extra $25. The real change we're finding is to offer more points of sale to move the intermission lines quicker and to increase revenue. If a good bartender can make a two-three drinks a minute, then having more mobile stations to serve makes a lot of sense. Then we can focus on solving the women's bathroom line problem - Potty Parity!
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Here again at the Marquis Theater, one of the largest on Broadway
And it has to be the biggest to hold all of the Stranger Things fans who didn't get enough of five seasons of TV over 10 years. ST: The First Shadow is technically brilliant, with incredibly complex production effects and a cast of 20-year olds playing kids. Where is Winona when you need her?
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Wall art at the Museum of the City of New York
Came to see Joe Macken's incredibly detailed scale model of NYC built in his garage (!) and saw this fantastic mural in the adjacent gallery.
--> He Built This City
Position paper — Historic restoration
The art of bringing theaters back to life without losing their souls
The most important question in historic theater restoration is not how much can we change, but how much do we need to change. Four decades of work on the New Amsterdam, Radio City, the Hippodrome, and a dozen others has shaped a methodology built around that question.
Read the full paper →
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11000 Strings at the Park Ave Armory
How many different ways can you create resonance out of strings, cables and threads? Plucking, gonging, drawing a bow, scratching. And how do the 2000 people attending know where to look at?
--> And this glowing review
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The luxury of Printemps
French Design is really over the top, especially in the grand banking halls of One Wall Street.
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Twenty years and still going strong!
#TBT to 2007 - Tim and Daria with John in the background.
Press
New York Times on Gulfshore Playhouse defying the odds
Regional theaters across the country are having tough times. Two theaters, though, are "thriving".
2025
Post-Occupancy Report
Four Years in Greensboro: what a mid-size American city looks like when it bets on culture and wins
The Tanger Center opened in 2021 and Greensboro’s downtown has not been the same since. The evidence uncovered by Clemson is the kind that urban economists struggle to quantify but architects recognize immediately.
Field Notes
Louis Sullivan in St. Louis
Went to visit Sullivan's Wainwright Building in St. Louis, the first skyscraper in architectural history, now empty and waiting for a new use. The terra cotta decoration was inspired by the hops and grain plants used to brew beer during the 19th century. Ellis Wainwright led the St. Louis Brewing Association and his eponymous building was the center of St. Louis's massive brewing industry, or "lager landscape."
Field Notes
Our New Mayor!
A new era begins in January!
Position paper — Urban design
Culture as Urban Infrastructure: Why Cultural Districts Succeed and Why They Often Don't
Most cultural districts underperform because cities invest in buildings without investing in plans. Brooklyn's $24 billion transformation and Greensboro's Tanger Center show what changes when planning leads design — and what is decided long before the first sketch.
Read the full paper →
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The great Philadelphia Orchestra at Marian Anderson Hall at Ensemble Arts Philly/Kimmel Center
Under the baton of Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Beethoven's 9th with a cast of hundreds! The former Verizon Hall, now renamed to honor Philadelphia-born operatic contralto Marian Anderson.
--> See Marian Anderson sing at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939
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Best part of the Perelman PAC
Luminous onyx is always a joy to see.
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John Pizzarelli at Birdland
I like Jersey Best!
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The H3 team after completing the Great Architectural Bake-off
Antonin Careme, French chef of kings and king of chefs, once said: "The Fine Arts are five in number: Painting, Music, Poetry, Sculpture, and Architecture--of which the principle branch is pastry-making."
Process Notes
Cutaway models help get people inside "the room where it happens."
We build these half-room models to help understand the layers that go into constructing an auditorium. When we place a mirror next to the model, people can peer in and get a sense of the whole.
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Next time you're at the BAM Peter Jay Sharp Building . . .
Don't forget to pat the putti before you go in!
Industry Report
Not-for-profit theaters in the US have contributed $3.6 billion to the economy, with more than 27 million patrons attending productions. But there are troubling signs emerging about the industry's future
From the latest Theatre Facts from TCG and SMU DataArts: although not-for-profit theater organizations were able to sustain themselves during Covid-19, earned and contributed revenues are declining and overall attendance has fallen. At the same time, increasing costs and expenses are squeezing working capital for many theaters. Most troubliing, attendance from those 18 and younger has fallen nearly 25% since Covid. What can we do to draw GenZ and GenAlpha away from YouTube and TikTok and into live theater?
Sketch
Today's LL97 envelope energy requirements are the result of working through the concepts and practice of continuous insulation
Jack Martin was the best at thinking through these important details. Here are his sketches for the various wall systems at Pier A. Learned so much from this drawing!
Process Notes
#TBT to the UC Santa Barbara interview model
We call these toys Julia Child models. With a few base ingredients, you show the client how the design will be prepared, ready to be plated.
A new year begins.
Hoping we can all join together in time for next year's semiquincentennial - America turns 250 years young!
2024
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The H3 interview tradition: why we always have cookies and what that says about how we work
A small office ritual from our early days that tells you everything you need to know about our approach to client presentations.
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On why the H3 Ethnic Foodfest potluck at Thanksgiving is the most important meeting of the year
Architecture is a collaborative art. The quality of the collaboration depends on the quality of the relationships. This is ours.
Live Sound visits the Knight Center for Music Innovation
“I don’t know if there is a space in all of South Florida where chamber music will sound better than the Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Recital Hall; it’s just a pristine listening experience,” Reynaldo Sanchez, Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation, professor at Frost School of Music and a music producer.
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Going to Chicago - Pt 1: The new Steppenwolf Phase 2 expansion
Fantastic expansion of Steppenwolf's arts education program! One of the few theaters-in-the-round, designed by by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, with Charcoal Blue. Seating is only six rows up!
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My Kind of Town (Chicago Is) - Pt 2: Hot Wing King at Writer's Theater
Jeanne Gang's central atrium was chef's kiss! Even better was the pre-show picnic out on Writer's front lawn. Great night in Glencoe!
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Chicago, that toddlin' town - Pt 3: The Yard at Chicago Shakes on the Navy Pier
This room can do it all - 150 to 850 seated, flat floor, raked, movable seating towers, etc. Also AS+GG designed. And a view to the Lake!
Position paper — Academic design
Programming the 21st-century university performing arts center: a strategic framework for multi-mission success
Academic performing arts facilities must simultaneously serve students, faculty, the institution's public mission, and earned revenue. Our experience across more than sixty university projects reveals design principles that resolve these competing demands.
Read the full paper →
Field Notes
Behind the scenes at the new Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center in Orlando
Seeing the Gala system in action. These pistons and chains completely flip around seats and platforms to give the Steinmetz a flat floor as well as other seating configurations.
Field Notes
There's a reason why it's called RIGGING!
Amazing photos of backstage at the Brown Theater in Louisville where ropes and sandbags were used to raise and lower scenery before modern counterweight fly systems became the norm. How many of these "hemp houses" are left?
Sketch
Stacking program, 3D views
This Fukutomi View (named after Jon Fukutomi, our master visualizer) shows how the venues at OSL/DiMenna Center are vertically arranged. We've done these for each of our stacked theater projects on tight urban sites.
Sketch
Sketching options - Orchestra Hall
For an addition to a previous HHPA project, we thought through the different ways to accommodate new program. The original lobby was undersized and did not have the amenities now expected by modern audiences. How to add all these new functions on the same footprint was a difficult brief.
Sketch
New York Botanical Garden — early concept sketches, 2004
From the H3 archive. The sketch is where the idea is still honest — before the client has seen it, before the contractor has priced it, before the building has to defend itself.
2023
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Opening night at the Barrymore: on the particular emotion of watching people walk into something you built
There is a moment at every opening night that is impossible to describe to someone who hasn't experienced it.
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The Broadway Theater transformed into a 1970's Filipino Disco.
Here Lies Love with music by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim hustles on down to the Broadway Theater which underwent a $22M renovation to accommodate the dance floor, immersive arena seating and a light and sound extravaganza.
Arts Education is a critical program element in new performance venues
In most of our recent performing arts interviews with civic, government and academic institutions, nearly all are looking to provide facilities for arts education as part of the program. Though many students pursue traditional careers in the arts, institutions are finding the same curriculum instills confidence and provides skills in collaborative thinking, brainstorming and decision making and the group team work necessary in today's economy. PAC's, in particular, are partnering with local K-12 school systems and going beyond the typical bus field trip to see the symphony. Classes, artist residencies, coaching and mentorships, social intiatives and other instructional opportunities not only bring new audiences into the PAC, but enliven the campus at all times during the day.
Process Notes
The night before the UCCS interview: what we put on the wall and what we decided to leave off
Throwback to 2017: The preparation for an interview is where a project's design direction actually gets made. This is what that looks like in practice.
Postcard
Every theater needs a CHANDELIER!
The concept was to harken back to the old European opera houses that had 10-year old pageboys running around the ceiling dome blowing out candles to dim the lights. At Tanger we do it electronically, the sixty LED bars individually dim, counting down the minute before the show begins.
About this section
Thinking is H3’s working journal — field notes from site visits and travel, reviews of performances from an architect’s perspective, diaries from active projects, and occasional longer essays on topics the firm cares about.
Published when we have something worth saying. Not on a schedule.
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New pieces appear several times a year. To be notified when new content is published, reach us at info@h3hc.com.
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