Acoustical Designer, The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Artec Consultants Inc is the global leader in the design of innovative performing arts facilities. Founded in 1970 by Russell Johnson, Artec provides specialized consulting services for the design and construction of performing arts facilities of all types, including opera houses, concert halls, multi-purpose theatres, speech drama theatres, open air venues and renovations of historic arts buildings. Artec’s list of commissions spans from small facilities with very low construction budgets to the largest and most prestigious landmark venues.
Artec is a collective of highly qualified consultants from diverse backgrounds, who collaborate on each project in solving the ever-increasing complexities, faced in planning and designing performing arts spaces. Artec’s consultants have experience and training in theatre technology, music, physics, architecture, acoustics, lighting, sound reinforcement and electronic enhancement systems. By uniting individuals with diverse yet related backgrounds into one team, Artec is best able to provide the sensitivity, technical expertise, and coordination necessary to assist each of our clients in achieving facilities of exemplary quality.
Artec Consultants Inc has collaborated in the designs for some of the most renowned concert halls, opera houses, theatres, and other performance spaces of the 20th century. Among the most prestigious and best-known are: Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, USA; Sala São Paulo, Brazil; Culture and Congress Center, Lucerne, Switzerland; the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, USA; and Symphony Hall, Birmingham, England.
Artec continues to lead its field with 21st Century triumphs such as the acclaimed Esplanade — Theatres on the Bay (concert hall plus (opera) theatre), Singapore; the renovation of Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA.
Whether a project is large or small, requiring a single area of expertise or the full range of Artec’s consulting services, the constant emphasis and priority of the team is to achieve the highest quality facility for the available budget. For Artec, quality is defined not only by aspects of the acoustics, theatre planning, and operational success of the facility, but also by the appropriateness of the design solutions in matching the needs and ambitions of the clients, audiences and prospective users.
Russell Johnson, widely acknowledged as one of the world's greatest theatre design consultants and acoustics specialists, was the Artec project leader.