Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre

Dallas, TX

Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre

In a groundbreaking solution that rethinks decades of theater design, this 12-story “vertical theater” features an unprecedented orientation that provides unmatched reconfigurability and performance freedom with 575 seats.  This award-winning performance space includes highly adaptable, first-of-their-kind movable balconies designed to rise in and out of a “transparent zone,” a completely reconfigurable stage, an orchestra pit with a lift, and movable seating wagons that store beneath the stage. MKA’s innovative structural system and 3D composite global frame created the 27-ft-high, ground-level, transparent zone with absolutely no structure beneath the building except at the perimeter.  The final design utilized a four-story steel belt truss, two interior trusses, and just six perimeter concrete super-columns strategically placed to avoid key performance areas while meeting the architect’s desire of no columns in the corners.