Mark Cavagnero Associates Architects

    • Projects
    • SFJAZZ Center
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    Henderson Lab
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    Theater Rendering
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    SFJAZZ Center 5th Year Anniversary
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    SFJAZZ Vision
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    • Overview
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    SFJAZZ Center

    Status

    Completed, 2013

    Size

    35,000 sf

    Client

    SFJAZZ

    Scope

    Programming, Concept Design, Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Documentation, Construction Administration

    Project Team

    Mark Cavagnero
    Kang Kiang
    Goetz Frank
    Larry Biggs
    Cameron Cooper
    Paul Davison
    Felicia Dunham
    Aaron Harvey
    Charlotte Hofstetter
    Paul Loeffler
    Jon McNeal
    Young Na

    Project Collaborators

    General Contractor: Hathaway Dinwiddie
    Owner’s Representative: Ingram & Associates
    Civil: KCA Engineers
    Landscape: Monica Viarengo Landscape Design
    Structural: Forell/Elsesser Engineers
    MEP: WSP (Formerly WSP Flack + Kurtz)
    Lighting: WSP (Formerly WSP Flack + Kurtz)
    Interiors: Mark Cavagnero Associates
    Theater/Video: Auerbach Pollock Friedlander
    Acoustics/Audio: SIA Acoustics
    Telecommunications: TEECOM
    Security: Guidepost Solutions LLC
    Façade: Maurya McClintock Façade Consulting
    LEED: Green Building Services
    Architectural Photography: Tim Griffith

    Special Features

    Certified LEED Gold

    Description

    A lively tempo of alternating bands of opaque and transparent glass mark the edge of San Francisco’s vibrant performing arts district, where the SFJAZZ Center joins a constellation of established cultural institutions. The Center offers a contemporary counterpoint to its neighbors that are dressed in neoclassical columns, with rotundas rounding out their peaks, announcing its arrival as the first freestanding jazz venue in the United States, as well as SFJAZZ its first permanent home in its long, thirty-year history. The SF JAZZ Center’s 35,000 square feet unite the organization’s multifaceted mission to showcase world-class jazz artists, as well as nurture young musicians, and promote jazz education and experimentation.

    The Center balances openness and intimacy, which begins on the ground floor where an all-glass, acoustically-isolated ensemble room— the Joe Henderson Lab — abuts the bustling sidewalk and brings together the daily rhythms of practicing musicians and passersby. Up above, the alternating bands of opaque and clear glass mark subtly framed views: an intuitive invitation for intimate gathering. The views look out on the neighboring architecture’s playful response to the SFJAZZ Center: a rotating set of iconic jazz portraits framed by the brickwork of the building across the way. These exterior and peripheral spaces offer a sleek neutral palette marked by the staccato of quick runs of lighting knitted through the ceiling.

    On the upper two stories, a rhythmic façade of opaque and clear glass and street-facing balconies underscore the Center’s civic spirit. While the public spaces open to the city, the central Robert N. Miner auditorium is intimate and focused. This flexible, state-of-the-art room accommodates audiences from 350 to 700, and provides a range of experiences including views from behind the stage. A reconfigurable stage supports a wide variety of acts while raked seating establishes an intimacy that makes the audience itself part of the performance.

    Underpinning all of the spatial and visual design priorities is the most important goal: to create performance spaces with the highest quality acoustics throughout.

    Location

    Recognition

    Awards

    AIA San Francisco, Excellence in Architecture Honor Award, 2013
    San Francisco Business Times, Real Estate Deals Awards, 2013
    Curbed San Francisco, Voted Best New Building, 2013
    Auditoria Magazine, Magnificent 7, 2013
    Architect, Annual Design Review, 2014
    Architectural Record, Pitch-Perfect Performance Space, 2014
    Chicago Athenaeum Museum, Green Good Design Award, 2014
    Chicago Athenaeum Museum, American Architecture, 2014
    International Design Awards, First Prize in Architecture, 2013
    International Design Awards, Honorable Mention in Urban Design, 2013
    United States Institute for Theatre Technology, Merit Award, 2014
    Architectural Record, Good Design is Good Business, 2015

    Publications

    Architectural Record, May 2015
    Architectural Record, January 2014
    Architectural Record, May 2013
    Architectural Record, January 21, 2013
    Architect, December 2014
    Architect, December 2013
    Architect, February 2013
    New York Times, January 26, 2013
    New York Times, January 24, 2013
    New York Times, September 13, 2012
    New York Times, May 16, 2010
    New York Times, May 6, 2010
    Los Angeles Times. January 26, 2013
    Los Angeles Times. January 24, 2013
    Los Angeles Times. January 5, 2013
    Wall Street Journal, January 29, 2013
    Wall Street Journal, December 21, 2010
    Chicago Tribune, May 11, 2010
    dwell, January 23, 2013
    World Architecture News, May 11, 2010
    Auditoria, October 2013
    The Atlantic Cities, February 22, 2013
    California Home & Design, October 22, 2012
    Architizer, September 16, 2012
    ArchDaily, June 25, 2013
    California Style magazine, March 1, 2013
    Jazz Times, January 24, 2013
    plusMOOD, June 15, 2013
    Escape Magazine, Spring 2013
    San Francisco Chronicle, February 15, 2013
    San Francisco Chronicle, January 22, 2013
    San Francisco Chronicle, November 4, 2012
    San Francisco Chronicle, September 15,2012
    San Francisco Chronicle, August 26, 2012
    San Francisco Chronicle, May 6, 2011
    San Francisco Chronicle, May 6, 2010
    San Francisco Business Times, March 28, 2013
    San Francisco Business Times, March 22, 2013
    San Francisco Business Times, January 17, 2013
    San Francisco Business Times, August 16, 2012
    San Francisco Business Times, June 22, 2012
    San Francisco Business Times, May 16, 2010
    San Francisco Magazine, January 2013
    San Francisco Weekly, January 23, 2013
    San Francisco Bay Guardian, January 15, 2013
    San Francisco Classical Voice, January 22, 2013
    Curbed San Francisco, December 31, 2013
    Conde Nast Traveller Russia Edition, March 2013
    Conde Nast Traveler, January 21, 2013
    Lighting and Sound America, November 2013
    DuJour Magazine, January 24, 2013
    The Architect’s Newspaper, May 21, 2010
    The Register Citizen, February 2, 2013
    Mercury News, September 14, 2012
    The Sacramento Bee, January 21, 2013