Mill Center for the Arts
Apicella + Bunton submitted a competition entry for the Mill Center for the Arts, a new cultural and performing arts center in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Located on the former site of the Grey Hosiery Mill, the program called for a 1200-seat performance hall, a 500-seat black box theater, an art gallery, a children’s museum and a series of classrooms.
The goal of our submission was to create a dynamic arts campus within an urban grid, organized around a series of interconnected interiors and accessible exterior spaces. Every square foot of the site is used programmatically in some way, ensuring that there is no back side of the facility.
Green roofscapes of carefully selected, native plantings naturally cool the interior spaces and reduce the runoff normally associated with large structures. This rooftop landscape will constantly transform with the seasons, responding to the surrounding landscape of western North Carolina. The programmatic elements were located strategically to activate all edges of the site and enliven the neighborhood with pedestrian traffic.
