South Carolina Children’s Theater

South Carolina Children’s Theatre (SCCT) is an Arts touchstone on the south end of Greenville’s Central Business District that offers theatrical educational programming and community outreach. A 100-year land grant enabled SCCT to design a 40,500-sf facility that features a technical 300-seat proscenium theatre, 100-seat flexible stage theatre, interactive and flexible lobby, performance classrooms, dressing rooms, costume shop, and an administrative wing.

The building is strategically located on the site to allow future growth, facilitate the safe pick-up/drop-off of children away from the busy street, and provide required parking. Selected for its acoustical, insulating, and durable qualities, precast concrete skirts the building’s perimeter rear. Restricted use of glass, typical to performance spaces, led to weaving the building’s volumes together through an artistic variety of precast joint patterns, reveal placement, and sandblasted texturing that enhance visual relief.

The curvilinear metal façade acts as a curtain to the transformative theatrical experiences within, supports illustrative movement on the exterior, and reduces the building’s scale to neighboring structures while masking the larger auditorium volume behind it. Angled concrete monoliths, poised at the entryway, ground the entrance and block western light while allowing light play through multi-color, acrylic filled cutouts. The curtain wall creates a vibrant moment of transparency into the bright colorful lobby and several areas within the landscaping are designated for future art installations.