Transformation of a SUNY theater

The renovation of the Duane L Jones Recital Hall at SUNY Old Westbury creates a revitalized home for campus events ranging from dance and theater performance to lectures and ceremonies.

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New affordable housing for IMPACCT Brooklyn

A 63 unit affordable housing development for IMPACCT for low-income seniors an frail elderly in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Learn more …

Six theaters

With the Duane L Johnson Recital Hall, or DLJ as it’s affectionately known here, complete, our attention is focused on 5 other theater projects we have on the boards.

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Award for 142 West 19th Street

The Think! design for a new multi-family condominium building in Flatiron was awarded in the SARA NY Awards. Read more …

Designing performance spaces

Marty Kapell shares some thoughts about Think!s approach to helping clients realize their ideal performance space.

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The Duane L. Jones Recital Hall is the major performance and presentation venue on the Old Westbury campus of the State University of New York (SUNY). Designed in 1973, the 400 seat Recital Hall was part of a brutalist academic “megastructure” that was intended to be the academic and administrative hub of the campus. The Recital Hall itself, as originally designed, was principally a concrete and sheetrock affair that more resembled a mini athletic arena than space for artistic performance. Its questionable aesthetics aside, the space was strangely asymmetrical, creating an out-of-kilter relationship between the audience and performers on stage. Poor acoustics and outdated stage technology also limited the space’s utility.

Think! was tasked with redesigning the 6,700 sq ft space to become the premier event space on campus. Without decreasing the seating count, our design reoriented the stage by introducing a curving wooden wall that improves the focus of the venue towards the stage and creates a stronger relationship between performer and audience. It reestablished, to the greatest degree possible, the room's symmetry.

By softening the brutalist design of the existing space through the use of wood paneling, we created a warm, welcoming and aesthetically unique performance space from something that had previously been austere. The Recital Hall's presence is further announced by the extension of the design vocabulary into the building lobby.

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On June 11th Think!’s design for 142 West 19th Street was awarded in the Multi-Family Residential: Condominiums and Apartments category of the Society of American Registered Architects New York (SARA NY) Awards.  Completed in 2023, the seven story building offers spacious high-end condominium apartments in the Flatiron District of Manhattan. It comprises 5 floor-thru two-bedroom units and one duplex unit opening out to the building’s rear garden.

The project is located in an area of Manhattan with a strong typological context – narrow masonry loft buildings with highly articulated infill window panels.  The exterior design of this building has taken its cues from this recognizable building type with thick stone piers at its party walls containing a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows opening from the main living spaces of each unit.  The material palette of stone metal and glass refer to the historical context but are articulated and expressed through a distinctly modern architectural vocabulary. 

With the apartments aimed at the high end of the Manhattan residential market, a great deal of effort was placed on the design of the individual units with particular emphasis on the selection of a rich and harmonious collection of materials. Our focus was on the design of the kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, hardware and lighting to ensure a consistent and luxurious experience throughout.  Because of the generous depth of each unit, the apartments all feature home offices and the top-floor unit has an interior stair leading to a dedicated roof deck area.

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Think! has a string of affordable and supportive housing projects that have just completed, or will complete later this year. The most recent is a 63 unit HPD-funded, senior affordable housing building in Bedford-Stuyvesant for IMPACCT Brooklyn.

This long-awaited four-story building will provide rent-subsidized housing for low-income seniors earning less than 50% of the area median income, with at least 30% of units set aside for seniors at risk of homelessness. IMPACCT is committed to helping residents build and sustain flourishing communities in Central Brooklyn.

In addition to the units, which are a combination of studio and one-bedroom apartments, the project includes program support spaces, parking, community rooms and a large 500 sq ft recreation room that opens out onto the landscaped rooftop garden. Seating areas, a patio, and paths enhance the experience for those accessing the garden by incorporating active design elements.

We selected the simplest solutions to elements such as building structure and a repetitive but elegant fenestration pattern in order to devote greater resources that more directly affect the residents’ quality of life.

We took care to counterpoint the building’s compositional  horizontal emphasis with a strong glazed vertical gesture at the main entry, which brings natural light to every elevator lobby, suggesting a kind of connectivity between exterior/ entry/ lobby/ elevators, up to the community room and out to the rooftop garden,  enhanced by natural materials and warm colors.

In addition, we solved a typical affordable project challenge. With the funder’s focus on maximum unit count, we moved many of the resident amenities to the cellar. Our design incorporates a generous opening and stair in the lobby which gives access to various spaces while creating a sun-filled cellar lobby.

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Hudson Forum, Hudson, NY

Think! has been appointed by the Galvan Foundation to restore the former Community Theatre in Hudson, NY to create the new Hudson Forum.

Working within the shell of the original 1930’s cinema, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, we are designing a new 400+ seat proscenium theater complete with front of house, rehearsal spaces and production facilities.

Strongbox Theater, East Rockaway, NY

The Strongbox Theater is a renovation of an existing bank and two adjacent buildings totaling 5,306 sq ft, for a new use as a performing arts and event space. A new addition (816 sq ft) will be provided in the rear of the main building to support the new use while a new vestibule will engage with the commercial street and connect the three existing structures.

Aaron Davis Hall, CCNY

Aaron Davis Hall is the primary performing arts facility for the City College of New York (CCNY). The building houses three venues: a 629-seat proscenium theater, a 110-265 seat black box theater, and a 75 seat flexible studio and teaching space. Our renovation will include an accessibility upgrade, expansion of seating capacity, major upgrades to lighting, rigging and AV/IT control systems and an architectural refresh of the main lobby and significant public spaces.

Big Deal Speakeasy, New York, NY

Think! is part of the team designing the environment for a "full immersion" theatrical experience, in which audience and performers interact within the same space along the lines of a predetermined but highly improvisational script.

Medgar Evers College, City University of New York, NY

Think! is working wih Medgar Evers College and DASNY to expand and upgrade Founder's Hall, the main gathering space on the college's campus.  The upgrade will entail the expansion of the venue's seating capacity as well as new theatrical and building systems and the aesthetic enhancement of the auditorium itself.

Although Think! maintains a varied architectural practice, the design of spaces for the performing arts has always been an important part of what we do. For us, theaters are unique spaces for social interchange, intellectual engagement and emotional encounter, not to mention pure entertainment. We derive great satisfaction from designing spaces that optimize the audience / performer relationship, provide state-of-the-art technical infrastructure and enhance the experience for audience, performer and staff.

Think!’s theater design practice is based on the foundation of principal Marty Kapell’s prior career as a theater professional. Working in a variety of roles, Marty worked with numerous theater, dance and music companies of national and international reputation across the country and abroad, gaining valuable experience and understanding of what makes great theaters work.

It is our experience that great projects can only result when our clients are fully engaged in the design process. We start by demystifying that process so that everyone feels comfortable making a contribution. We accomplish this by meeting often and starting simply, building complexity as the design progresses. We ask questions that lay the ground work for more detailed conversations; these questions will include the company’s history and current thinking, both practical and “out-there”.

We don’t pursue innovation for its own sake. We prefer to look for what is unique and special about each of our clients and then find the architectural means to express those distinctive qualities. To find the key to this, we might first ask the question: what would make a venue for the specific art this company produces different from any other type of venue? Questions like these open a world of possibility and will lead to a space that innovates in exactly the way the company is hoping.

Delivering something extraordinary is only possible when preconceptions and self-imposed limitations are left behind – if only for a moment. This requires the ability to “think big” while trusting that the practical means will be found to translate the big idea into an achievable reality. At the end of the day, the extraordinary can be achieved through as little as one small but transformative idea and that idea, when found, has the power to propel the entire project.

Working together it is our job to uncover that idea.

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