Opsis Architecture ‘Small is Beautiful’ theory

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Chris Roberts excels in the art of designing compact venues. He is not into the ‘Bigger is Better’ mindset and believes that small venues, or for that matter event centers, have an aura of serenity around them.

Small event venues offer charm, intimacy and personalized service that many big-name venues simply can’t match. However, operating a smaller event venue does come with its set of challenges. Working as a Principal for Opsis Architecture, Roberts and his team recently completed a ‘Feasibility and Concept Study’ for an University on-campus event center and he shares some lessons learned.

Chris Roberts brings over 24 years of design experience leading teams in the execution of complex building types across the Western United States. He heads Sports Development at Opsis Architecture and has excelled as a Project Architect, Manager and Designer on the firm’s most high-profile projects.

Chris Roberts, Principal, Opsis Architecture, US, tells ‘Coliseum’ how right sizing a project is very important as well as delivering a project on time and within budget. He narrates how they did exactly that with a University Event Center and retained its pristine sheen, tightened up the spaces and also created an intimate spectator experience. Roberts underlined that creating the right narrative – a narrative that really resonates with the people who are going to help fund the project is really a critical component in a venue project.
 

Opsis Architecture

Based in Portland, Oregon (US), Opsis Architecture was established in 1999. Its mission is to advance its client’s vision with inclusive and inspired design elevating the human experience and nurturing the environment through the enduring art of architecture.
 

Spatial Angle

Chris Roberts stated that Opsis Architecture was called in to revisit a University Event Center project and they were tasked with looking at the program and the concept design goals – “We kind of worked with them and set new goals for the project and the first thing was they were really interested in right-sizing the project . So, with right-sizing the facility the main focus was to reduce the project cost and how could we do that? We prioritized their program space needs, channelized some of the previous assumptions to really try to make a highly efficient building in terms of its layout, circulation both horizontally and vertically and then develop some really efficient concepts that would be born out of that.”

He added, “The initial study was basic infill of an urban space that the University owns and they were looking at how to kind of maximize its usability. It is also home to an existing historic building and the pristine sheen of the structure had to be maintained as part of the project. Our first take on it was let’s try to reduce that building (which also includes the spatial angle) and try to see if that could be repurposed or utilized in a way that might me more beneficial to the University moving forward.”

Roberts said that their priority was to make everything in the building very compact, identify the most important spaces and how “everything could be managed within less space. The goal was to make it a smaller size arena with 4,500 seats and bridge the gap. Our first big move was to open up the basketball court space. An overlay of the various levels was really compact and on gameday it’s really about creating this energy. One of the reasons for the open concourse was they would be eating up the additional space so again because of the smaller size of the arena we had to kind of leverage its unique needs to create a smaller footprint.”

It is all about how one can be smart and flexible with saving areas and at the same time providing a compelling layout.
 

Design Details

Informed Roberts, “We sunk the bowl down 14 feet from the North side and about eight feet below grade and by sinking the bowl down that allowed us to have the concourse level directly at grade. There are seven ribbons that kind of wrap around the building and there is an industrial sort of nature to the neighborhood there just directly next to the campus so it tries to kind of bridge the gap. On the East side of the venue it is really about transitioning and making this connection with the historic architecture. So, now they have a nice main entry to let people in, queue up, we have kind of used the screen wall there just as an extension of the architecture to help sort of screen the loading dock behind and we have got gentle falls. There is also this old historic wall and the windows blend into that but we have kept the historic nature of the building intact though we have made the Event Center more compact.”
 

Sum-up

Chris Roberts summed up by stating that one should learn to embrace the space and make the most of the square footage. Highlighting the venue’s rich history and the unorthodox architecture can also turn it into a unique selling point for the space. After all, small is beautiful – small or simple things can be just as admirable and significant as large or complex things. A small and compact venue can be equally jaw-dropping and it is not necessary that only the imposing and majestic structures are drop-in-a-swoon buildings.

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