The Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences opens

West Texas’s largest dedicated performance venue, The Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences, has opened in Lubbock, Texas.

The 218,000-sf hall will serve the community’s needs and anchor Lubbock’s arts and culture district. Performances and programs will be held in the 2,297-seat Helen DeVitt Jones Theater, the more intimate 415-person Crickets Theater, and other flexible spaces for rehearsal and performance. Seating in the Helen DeVitt Jones Theater can be reconfigured to accommodate the hall’s range of programming. The orchestra seating section can be set for traditional raked fixed-chair seating or for popular flat-floor general admission. Also included are a restaurant, two multi-purpose rooms, and an outdoor covered amphitheater.

The design of the $158 million hall was inspired by the colors and shapes of the landscape of West Texas. The building’s facades balance various approaches to creating shade to counter the South Plains Region of Texas’s extreme temperature fluctuations. A long overhang, angled concrete fins, and deep-set ribbon windows all act as architectural drapery to cool the building and filter light without obstructing views of the vistas surrounding the hall.

"Responding to the unique challenges of the site—from the intense Texas heat to its location in a flood plain—we have created a signature new space for the performing arts with world-class facilities that embody the spirit of the performers who will be gracing its stages,” said Matthew Lella, Principal at Diamond Schmitt, in a release.

The layout of the interior spaces will accommodate the hall’s wide-ranging performance line-up, which will include hosting ballet, symphony, school, opera, pop, and country performances; Broadway productions; and statewide band and choir competitions. Through the use of glass at ground-level entrances, the indoors and outdoors blend to create a seamless transition for visitors entering and exiting the hall. Inside, the building moves from spacious lobbies to more liminal spaces leading to several intimate studios and The Buddy Holly Hall’s two signature theaters.

The facility is targeting LEED Silver.