The larger building is an 11,500-square-foot, split-level structure with one and two-story pre-existing additions. Without altering its footprint, and with only a limited renovation of its exterior, Centerbrook’s design transforms the interior of the former classroom building into a top-tier theater arts center with a two-story black box theater as its main stage.

All of the partitions and some of the second-level floors have been removed to create space for the black box theater, which features fixed and retractable seating for up to 100 people. The theater has an 18-foot high ceiling grid to support performance lighting. Support spaces include two dressing rooms, left and right stage wings, a tech balcony with control booth, a fully equipped scene shop, a costume design studio and storage room, a smaller two-story high rehearsal hall that also serves as a classroom and small performance space, a student lounge, and faculty offices.

Integral to the main stage black box theater is a lobby that can double as a student art gallery. The transformation is completed by a landscaped and furnished entry courtyard that features a lit-up glass canopy over the main entrance door. In total, the renovated building has a usable square footage of 10,250.

The smaller building has been transformed into a 1,700 square-foot music rehearsal studio. Like its larger neighbor, the exterior of the split-level building is mostly unaltered. The reprogrammed interior includes a rehearsal room with a 12-foot high ceiling, two practice rooms, and musical instrument storage rooms and lockers.

The two structures sit side-by-side on Sherman Avenue in Hamden, Connecticut, at the foot of Quinnipiac’s York Hill Campus.