Naples, FL

Gulfshore Playhouse is Naples’s professional theatre company, founded to fill a niche in a community which holds great interest in the arts. The professional self-producing theatre has mounted Broadway quality shows in Naples for nearly two decades. After years of building a following, it has outgrown its current facility. The theatre company and donors conducted a competition to create a new home naming H3 and Arquitectonica the winning architects, working in partnership to create the design of the new facility and educational center.

The 50,000 square foot complex will feature a 350-seat stage house, a 125-seat black-box studio, an educational wing, art gallery, public café, a Founders Lounge, rehearsal spaces, costume shop, storage, administrative offices and separate parking facility. The distinct, sculpted architecture reflects the innovative spirit of the performance art work taking place within while carefully selected exterior materials respond to the local climate. Conveying a sense of the surrounding context, following the movements of sand, sun, and sea, the project expects to stand as a beacon and attraction for the Southwest Florida region. The newly selected site leaves room for a new 115,000-square-foot parking garage to be constructed. The landscape design will also play an important role to create more public space and connections to the area’s greenway along Goodlette Frank Road.

CLIENT: Gulfshore Playhouse
COMPLETION: 2024
SIZE: 42,000 square feet (education and performing arts center) / 115,000 square feet (parking garage)
COST: $34 million