Construction is underway on the new home for The American Repertory Theater, The David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity & Performance

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, led by Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director Diane Paulus and Executive Director Kelvin Dinkins, Jr., announced today that construction is underway on its new home at 175 N. Harvard Street in the Allston neighborhood of Boston.

A building to foster groundbreaking performance, public gathering, teaching, and international research, the David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity & Performance was designed by Haworth Tompkins (architect and design lead) and ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge (architect of record) in collaboration with theater and acoustic consultant Charcoalblue. Shawmut Design and Construction serves as the project’s construction manager.

The David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity & Performance will contain interconnected, adaptable multi-use spaces designed to support creativity and embrace future change. The center will include two flexible performance venues—the West Stage, where large-scale productions will be produced, and the versatile and intimate East Stage—as well as light-filled, state-of-the-art rehearsal studios and teaching spaces, a spacious public lobby, and an outdoor performance yard to host ticketed and free programming. The center will also include dressing rooms, technical shops, and administrative offices for the organization, as well as a modest café.

The A.R.T.’s new home has been conceived and will be programmed to center community. It will be open to all during designated hours of operation, offering free Wi-Fi, food and beverage service, public restrooms, gathering spaces, indoor and outdoor public art and performance, and room rental opportunities.

Designed with a blend of environmental and social strategies to minimize embodied and operational carbon, maximize wellbeing, boost biodiversity, and enhance resiliency, the David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity & Performance embraces Harvard’s ambitious sustainability priorities. The building is designed to achieve the Living Building Challenge core accreditation from the International Living Future Institute in recognition that it gives more to its environment than it takes.

Conceived through core principles of openness, artistic flexibility, collaboration, sustainability, and regenerative design, it will be constructed with laminate mass timber, reclaimed brick, and cedar cladding to minimize its lifetime carbon budget. The building’s chilled water, hot water, and electric utilities will come from Harvard’s new lower-carbon District Energy Facility. It will capture additional clean energy from rooftop solar panels and leverage natural ventilation to reduce energy usage and enhance occupant comfort. Additionally, a green roof and extensive plantings will aid stormwater attenuation while increasing biodiversity and occupant wellbeing.

The center is the first building in the US to be designed by the UK-based Haworth Tompkins, Architects’ Journal 2022 and 2020 AJ100 Practice of the Year and winner of the Royal Institute of British Architects 2014 Stirling Prize for its design of Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, England. The award is presented to the architects of the building that has made the greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture in the past year. Haworth Tompkins was selected by the A.R.T. for its experience with sustainable design and urban development, as well as approaches to democratizing the theatergoing experience and to the role that theaters can play within their communities.

Global theatre and acoustics consultancy Charcoalblue has collaborated with Haworth Tompkins on dozens of projects around the world, including London’s Young Vic, Liverpool Everyman, and the Dorfman at the National Theatre, as well as the Court Theatre in New Zealand and Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. In North America, Some of Charcoalblue’s other projects include the brand-new Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center, The Yard at Chicago’s Shakespeare Theater and Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and Toronto’s Massey Hall. Renowned for their technical virtuosity in cutting-edge flexible theatrical spaces, Charcoalblue brings a worldwide team to the A.R.T. project, providing unique and functional theatrical spaces, with superb acoustic qualities.

Construction of the David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity and Performance will continue into 2026. Audiences are invited to follow the process on A.R.T.’s social media channels and its website. A.R.T. will announce the building’s official opening date in the future.