ennead

Omaha Performing Arts, Tenaska Center for Arts Engagement

Beginning with the Holland Center, it has been our great pleasure to work together with O-pa to create a campus that expresses the richness and breadth of their mission and share it with an even wider audience.
Stephen P-D Chu, AIA, Partner at Ennead Architects.

Centrally located in downtown Omaha, the Tenaska Center for Arts Engagement is on the east side of the Holland Center, across the street from Steelhouse Omaha. It provides additional rehearsal, workshop, and classroom space to accommodate O-pa’s expanding education and community engagement programs, and complete O-pa's campus.

Ennead 1843 Omaha Performing Arts Campus Expansion 03 Render Ext0001 medium

Centrally located in downtown Omaha, the Tenaska Center for Arts Engagement is located on the east side of the Holland Center, across the street from Steelhouse Omaha. It will provide additional rehearsal, workshop, and classroom space to accommodate O-pa’s expanding education and community engagement programs, and complete O-pa's campus.

The exterior of the building reads as a horizontal metal-and-glass bar, mounted on a precast concrete base and set on a gently sloped lawn. Transparency into the lobby and studios allows the Tenaska Center to engage and welcome its community. The façade is articulated by an array of vertical aluminum fins that create a large-scale graphic pattern. Secondary patterns of ceramic frit are incorporated in the precast glass panels, sculpted as a rhythmic set of vertical planes that alternate between textures as they zig-zag across the volume.

The exterior of the building reads as a horizontal metal-and-glass bar mounted on a precast concrete base, set on a gently sloped lawn. The building’s façade is articulated by an array of vertical aluminum fins that describe a large-scale graphic pattern, and by secondary, more uniform patterns defined on the glass (by way of ceramic frit) and on the precast panels (sculpted as a rhythmic set of vertical planes that zig-zag in plan and alternate between 2 surface textures). The lawn space is closed off on its North end by a small box-shaped mass, which reads like a reduced-size version of the main glass bar – this is the Education lobby and the face of the building that establishes a dialogue with O-PA’s Steelhouse Omaha concert venue across the street, and where the main entrance is located. There is another entrance and lobby on the South end of the building, but this one is dedicated to the Event Space.

Achieving the acoustic qualities of the exterior envelope while maintaining acoustic isolation of each separate space required double floors, acoustically enhanced curtain walls, box-in-box construction, resilient barrier ceilings, and mass partitions. This allows O-pa to expand its offerings to the community and host concurrent programs in spaces that can be used simultaneously with minimal disruption.

The education spaces incorporate significant acoustic treatments and a colorful palette. A variety of learning spaces have been incorporated into the building design, from closed rehearsal spaces and classrooms to open areas for informal engagement and impromptu performances.

The event spaces incorporate more formal design elements and a palette that references the interiors of the Holland Performing Arts Center. They are imbued with the warmth of biophilic wood ceilings and wall paneling. The event space of Tenaska also physically connects with the Holland Center, via its second floor.