Location: Stratford, Ontario
Architect: Hariri Pontarini Architects

The new Tom Patterson Theatre at the Stratford Festival is designed to stand as an attractor along the banks of the Avon River. Set within significant gardens, a shimmering bronze veil enwraps the building in warmth and light. Surrounding the intimate auditorium, the lobby, café, education lab, lounge and forum are light-filled spaces that bring garden and river views deep inside. Both highly sustainable and accessible, this cultural beacon will serve the Stratford Festival for decades to come.


Photo Credit: Scott Norsworthy

The design takes inspiration from its setting in a park to establish a strong connection between indoors and out. The building is raised above a nearby road to provide uninterrupted views of the Avon River. An undulating curtain wall flows across the public rooms, providing eddies of encounter. The design creates multiple vantage points in light-filled rooms that heighten the relationship between the interior, the gardens, and the water. Bronze mullions encasing curvilinear glass, rough and honed Ontario limestone panels, and ceilings of hickory slats above pale oak floors all serve to reinforce the strong design narrative of connection to nature.


Photo Credit: Scott Norsworthy

The Festival mandated that the new theatre be a catalyst for the next 50 years, as the original tent and Festival Theatre before it. New programmatic elements to captivate the community and audiences include a 250-seat forum, education lab, and versatile rehearsal hall that extend the theatre’s community use, adding flexibility to support year-round events. These spaces can be reconfigured to enable separate programs or combine to extend the lobby. The members’ lounge recognizes their contribution while the café and public terrace have prime locations open to everyone. New gardens and pathways connect with city routes.


Photo Credit: doublespace photography

This theatre is registered to attain LEED Gold certification—a rarity among performing arts buildings. A comprehensive design approach enabled this ambitious goal, which begins with a fortuitous site orientation. The high-performance window wall system faces north, with little direct impact from solar gain, while the south orientation has minimal glazing. Low-energy lighting is deployed throughout, including stage lighting. The mechanical systems optimize energy demands and meet acoustic requirements of the auditorium. Radiant in-floor heating minimizes heat loss. A cistern supplies water to the native species gardens. The building performs at a predicted energy use of 206.5 ekWh/m2.


Photo Credit: Ann Baggley

The Tom Patterson Theatre is designed to cater to all audiences, regardless of their mobility and sensory needs. The public spaces open from one room to the next on the same level. Access to the terrace is universal, and gender-neutral washrooms are located throughout. The auditorium accommodates a wide variety of mobility devices with an elevator to stage level. Back-of-house facilities are similarly accessible. Custom seats and a carefully calibrated rake ensure comfort and clear sightlines. The standard building code was a base line from which to augment facilities, making this theatre a clarion call for 21st-century universal design.

This blOAAg post is part of a series exploring the OAA’s 17 Design Excellence Finalists for 2022, as selected by our jury.
Click here to see other projects from this current award cycle.