Founded 1962 — New York
Architecture for
the visual and
the performing arts
H3 designs theaters, performing arts centers, and cultural facilities that transform institutions and anchor communities. We are the inheritors of Hugh Hardy’s singular legacy.
View our workTown of Kiawah Island, Civic and Cultural Center
New theaters and performance venues
University of Alabama – Smith Family Center for the Performing Arts
Academic and Arts Education
Joyce Center for Creativity and Dance
Cultural Institutions, New York projects
University of Miami – Knight Center for Music Innovation
Academic and Arts Education
Lincoln Center Theater – Claire Tow Theater / LCT3
New theaters and performance venues, New York projects
Radio City Music Hall
Restoration and Adaptive Reuse, New York projects
“H3 took our vision — that all the theatre’s elements, its configuration, acoustics, sightlines, and uniformity of color — combine to create a level of intimacy between audience and performer, and result in what we consider to be the ultimate black box theatre.”
— Dorothy Ryan, Managing Director, Theatre for a New Audience
“H3 was able to understand this building’s original intent and how to ensure its adaptation for use in the twenty-first century. The illuminated volume of the new theater energizes the entire façade seen at night across the great plaza. We regard ourselves as fortunate to have had this long term working relationship.”
— Bernard Gersten, Executive Producer, Lincoln Center Theater
“To find an architecture firm as gifted as H3 is a great boon to any institution making a long-term investment in the arts.”
— Maya E. Roth, Chair, Department of Performing Arts, Georgetown University
“Using both restoration and new construction, the design illustrates H3's ability to interpret BAM's complex needs and embody its vigorous character. H3's work has unquestionably helped BAM achieve its long term goal of not only being a Brooklyn icon, but an organization with a great range of buildings that enjoys a national and international reputation.”
— Karen Brooks Hopkins, President Emerita, Brooklyn Academy of Music
“Schuster Hall has exceeded our expectations in every way. Our students and faculty now have access to one of America's top concert and recording venues. Not only does this have a positive impact on the university, but it also speaks to our mission where Wright State promises to provide cultural enhancement to the entire community.”
— Vicky Davidson, Associate Vice President, Wright State University
“H3 is completely redesigning our public spaces to celebrate and facilitate the myriad of diverse activities our programs now generate. We will be able to present contemporary design ideas as part of the audience experience in this one hundred-thirteen year old theater.”
— Cora Cahan, President, The New 42nd Street
New construction of performance venues of every scale — from intimate black boxes to 3,000-seat houses. Every seat designed for the person sitting in it, every project built for flexibility, earned revenue, and the community it serves.
Academic performing arts facilities that serve three mandates simultaneously — the student who must learn, the faculty who must teach, and the community that sustains every institution. H3 balances education, production values, and the earned-revenue goals that keep these buildings running.
Restoring landmark theaters as living venues, not museum pieces — inserting 21st-century production technology while honoring the architecture, acoustics, and ceremony that drew audiences in the first place. That same expertise extends across H3’s restoration and adaptive-reuse work: libraries, museums, and civic buildings given new life within their existing walls.
The neighborhoods with the most energy are anchored by cultural institutions. Museums, libraries, civic centers, and parks that become places of gathering — H3 designs for the public realm because place-making builds communities.
Adjustable acoustics, state-of-the-art lighting, audio and video integration, flexible seating configurations, and backstage planning that supports the full range of professional production demands — treated as architectural decisions, not engineering parameters applied after the fact.
The most important decisions in any performing arts project are made before the design begins — in the programming and feasibility phase. H3 builds earned-revenue analysis, stakeholder alignment, and operational modeling into the spatial program from the start.
The Smith Family Center for the Performing Arts will help set a new standard of excellence for both students and faculty.
Yellowhammer News
Smith Family Center for the Performing Arts, University of Alabama