Artistic endeavor
Shaw Center offers striking contrast to Baton Rouge skyline

By Sam Barnes

The Shaw Center for the Arts is the most uniquely designed project that Ronnie Patton has ever been involved in.

Striking interior and exterior elements will make the $55 million complex stand in stark contrast to other downtown buildings.

"The structure's exterior glass channel cladding will be most noticeable," said Patton, jobsite superintendent with The Lemoine Co. of Lafayette. "It's a German system that has never been installed in the United States in this way."

The multi-layered system consists of a structural steel frame, metal stud framing with waterproofing and a solid layer of corrugated metal tin.

The system covers the majority of the structure and was pieced together in the air earlier in the year by BHN of Memphis using nine 60- to 120-ft. boom lifts. The heaviest single piece weighed about 125 lbs.

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Topping the cladding is a structural steel trellis that extends from the penthouse level of the building.

When finished in November, the Shaw Center will be home to the Douglas L. Manship Sr. Theater for the Visual and Performing Arts, the LSU Museum of Art, LSU School of Art classes, a digital studio and gallery space.

The Arts Council will manage an arts incubator for artists and emerging arts organizations and will offer art classes for middle and high school students.

Schwartz Silver Architects of Boston, Mass., designed the facility and Eskew + Dumez + Ripple of New Orleans is assisting with design execution.

"The complex consists of three distinct adjoined structures, including a six-floor museum and theater building, a two-floor theater support building and a three-floor administrative and classroom building," said project architect Alan Lewis with Eskew + Dumez + Ripple.

The museum and theater building will include galleries, a gift shop and future restaurant space on the first floor; galleries, office and classroom space on the second through fifth floors; and a sushi restaurant on the sixth floor.

A loading dock and freight elevator will be located on one side to accommodate art deliveries to the galleries.

The 300-seat theater will provide a venue for musical performances, dance and plays, and will be used as a performing arts incubator available to emerging performance groups and schools.

"The rehearsal building will include two large rehearsal rooms, one acoustically designed for musicians and the other technically designed for dance," Lewis said. "Both rehearsal rooms will double as small theaters that can seat audiences of 100 each."

The rehearsal building will also include a lobby on the first floor and a visual arts gallery and catering support room on the second floor. The art gallery will exhibit personal collections of local art patrons as well as work by Louisiana professional artists, folk artists and middle and high school art students.

The administrative/classroom building incorporates two walls from an existing parking garage nicknamed the Auto Hotel. The interior of the garage was gutted and renovated.

"It (the Auto Hotel) was a parking garage for state workers and we wanted to keep the brick façade on the north and west elevations," Lewis added.

After Lemoine broke ground in December 2002, American Construction & Demolishing Co. of Baton Rouge demolished the Auto Hotel by shoring up the 45-ft.-high north and west walls, removing the remaining walls and gutting the interior.

The Lemoine crew also dug a 1,500-sq.-ft. hole for the theater orchestra pit, a mechanical room and pump room for courtyard fountains. Stairs and an elevator provide access to the pit.

"Lemoine did all of the excavation and concrete work, including the formwork," said project manager Greg Landry said. "We had some water issues and were close to a bunch of utilities so we had to shore it up to keep the earth packed." The shoring consisted of steel plates and piles, in lieu of sheet piles.

About 1,800 cu. yds. of soil was excavated.

"We drove timber piles and caissons for the building's foundation and followed with a 2-ft. concrete mat pour," Landry added. "Everything was built on top of that."

The Lemoine Co. connected new building components to the existing brick of the Auto Hotel and tied old columns to the new columns and beams.

Elevated slabs within all the buildings measure 6 to 8 in. thick.

"We placed the 8-in. slab in the gallery building where a fifth floor cantilever hangs out over the auto hotel," Landry said. "The slab helps transfer the load down through the structure to the foundation." Heck Industries of Baton Rouge supplied about 4,500 cu. yds. of concrete for the project, most of which was post-tensioned and reinforced with steel.

Patton said three cast-in-place sheer walls provide another unique element and extend vertically through the gallery building to reinforce lateral wind load.

"It's a little unusual to have three sheer walls in a building of this size," he said. "We had to jump the forms every lift while working high in the air. It was pretty tricky."

The largest wall measures 114 ft. tall by 29 ft. wide by 9 in. thick. All three walls were finished a year ago.

Patton said the theater walls are made of structural precast concrete that connects to structural steel in the gallery building. Boykin Bros. Inc./Louisiana Concrete Products of Baton Rouge supplied all of the precast.

"The structural steel starts at the precast, goes north through the gallery building and ties into two of the shear walls," he added.

Much of the interior of the gallery space has sprayed-on foam insulation on top of 1-in.-thick plywood to provide soundproofing.

"Another thing that stands out is the colored topping slabs in the gallery space," Patton said. The 1.5-in.-thick charcoal gray slabs are placed on top of 5-in.-thick structural slabs.

"The color is mixed into the concrete at the site before it's applied," he added. The application of the mix is followed by a slick trowel finish, two coats of urethane sealer and two coats of wax.

Patton said the complex will have a 50,000-sq.-ft. exterior courtyard area at its entrance.

"The plaza extends from the west side of the building and goes across nearby Lafayette Street," he added. "It's paved with brick pavers with four different colors and patterns." Two large fountains are located on either side of Lafayette Street.

Five existing live oak trees will remain in the plaza.

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For more details about the Shaw Center, go to:
http://www.artsbr.org/building-the-arts-block.html