Ever since I can remember I’ve always wanted to design something grand. Specifically something they don’t really teach you in school. Unfortunately, school is probably the best time you would ever get to design something like that. Even more unfortunate, I didn’t realize I wanted to do something like that until 10 years after I graduated. FORTUNATELY, I went back to school and then I got to finally achieve my dream!

The Amphitheater Complex project located in Corpus Christi, TX and was a year long project spanning Research Seminar and Studio X in the spring of 2024. The main concert venue is a Type IIA mixed used concert hall encompassing Assemblies, Business, and Storage with a gross square footage of 38,865 SF, or at least it was supposed to. As the project got bigger, my teacher and I made the building massive. I could see the light in his eye as this was probably a pet project of his as well! The main lot the project sits on has been farmland since I can remember and has never been developed so, naturally, what better use of it than a 3,102,500 SF [72 acre] Outdoor Pavillion!

The design arose from a Hybrid Site Parti model incorporating the 5 methods of programming: Edges, Nodes, Landmarks, Districts, & Paths. From this, a rudimentary site design was created and it is like nothing I have ever designed before. If I had my way it probably would have been quite boring. But with my teacher’s guidance and a little bit of creativity the site ended working for everyone.

The main course of the project was the Amphitheater. That was where I really spent most of the time working on the project. Like the site plan, the building was an amalgamation of the 5 methods and, also like the site, was something I would have never created in my life. I knew I wanted to model the arrangement of the lawn to other outdoor theaters, but the building itself is something that few do. It houses restaurants, bars, a secondary theater, a business office complex, butterfly garden, rooftop gardens, rooftop nightclub, and is all made using sustainable materials.

I could go on and talk about this project until my fingers bleed, but this is supposed to be short. In all, this dream project that I got to work on turned out to be the most fun I had ever done in my life. None of the other students had ever done something this massive nor had my teacher. When we had professional critiques, I stood alone since none of them had ever tried to tackle something of this scale. I really enjoyed doing this project and it’s a shame that I’ll probably never do something like this again.

Project Information:

School Project

Fall 2023 – Spring 2024