In association with Koch Hazard Architects

The Freeman Performing Arts Center marks the threshold between prairie and civic life in this small town of 1,300 with a rich music tradition. The 37,000 sf center deploys a hall-type building with a multiple-gabled profile that unifies a miscellaneous collection of public buildings and landscapes at the corner of the town’s one-mile grid. The principal face of the building is a translucent curtain wall that illuminates interior massing—a beacon on the prairie. A thru-Porch celebrates transitions between the prairie’s horizon and the intimate gathering space of the entry plaza on the building’s east side. The west wall’s translucent singularity suggests a compelling civic landmark, opposite its east elevation, an intimate edge of articulated windows and charred wood cladding. Translucent walls, clerestory windows, and an interior courtyard combine to create a simple but spatially rich and warm interior realm, important in this northern cold climate.