Long Island Arts Center
The program for the Long Island Arts Center called for a 500-seat theater with accompanying stage, lobby and back of house facilities, and two cafes at street level. Rather than building an entirely new structure, Apicella + Bunton developed a plan to adaptively re-use an existing Knights of Columbus building, originally built in the 1970s.
The proposal expands the existing facility outward to accommodate the new theater. Rather than abandoning the distinctive style of the existing architecture, Apicella + Bunton chose to embrace its vocabulary. The main facade is conceived as an abstract collage of planes and surfaces. The materials harmonize with the original building; transparent panels of glass appear to float over the solid areas of brick and masonry. The resulting composition transforms an existing, underused resource into a beautiful, dynamic new arts center for the community.
