Strive for the highest

Located in Elkhorn City, a small town in the Appalachian mountains of Southeast Kentucky, this new-build 100-seat black box theatre will be the new home of the Artists Collaborative Theatre.

I got involved when my friend and alumnus Stephanie Richards called me to see if I would design a theatre for her. Because the theatre is a not-for-profit organization and the building is being built with donated money, the choices of materials were picked mainly for economy. However since the building would soon become the tallest structure in Elkhorn City (second maybe only to the library) it was important that it fit into the fabric of the town.

The foundation is dark grey rough-faced CMU is a nod to the layers of coal that formed the economic foundation of the community. The blue-painted T-111 siding (which is a prevalent building material the area) and grey steel standing-seam roofing blends in with the hues of the mountains.

Two facades of the main theatre block (16'x40' each) will have layered corrugated sheet-metal sculptures that reflect the distant mountains. The administration wing, with its narrow repetitive windows, pays homage to the tobacco barns which are also common in the area.