Lubbock, Texas, USA
Buddy Holly Hall, designed by Diamond Schmitt Associates, MWM Architects, and Parkhill, is West Texas’ largest dedicated performance venue—bringing under one roof the city’s vibrant performing arts community including the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, Lubbock Independent School District, and Ballet Lubbock, along with a variety of professional touring music and theater productions.
Overall the facility will accommodate large touring musicals as well as intimate dance performances.
It will facilitate education and banquets and be acoustically flexible to adapt to any musical genre.
Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences has recently been awarded a 2022 American Architecture Award as well as a 2022 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The Hall is a landmark destination that grew from the community’s needs, inspired by Lubbock’s physical and cultural landscape.
The exterior design references the landscape of West Texas, including the prismatic and layered rock formations of Texas canyons.
The layout of the interior spaces accommodates Hall’s wide-ranging performance line-up—from hosting ballet, symphony, school, opera, pop, and country performances to Broadway productions and the statewide band and choir competitions.
Targeting LEED Silver, the building’s façades meticulously balance various approaches to creating shade to counter the South Plains Region of Texas’ extreme temperature fluctuations.
A long overhang angled concrete fins, and deep-set ribbon windows all act as architectural drapery to cool the building and filter light without obstructing the views of the wide vistas surrounding the Hall.
Dissolving the threshold between indoors and outdoors, Hall’s use of glass at ground-level entrances creates an inviting and seamless transition for visitors entering and exiting.
Inside, the building moves from spacious public lobbies and flexible spaces for rehearsal and performance to more liminal spaces leading to Hall’s two signature theaters: the 2,297-seat Helen DeVitt Jones Theater and the more intimate 415-person Crickets Theater.
Both achieve excellent acoustics through extensive modeling and precisely placed acoustical banners that enhance the clarity and consistency of tone.
Additionally, the seating in the Helen DeVitt Jones Theater can be reconfigured to accommodate the hall’s vast range of programming.
The orchestra seating section can be set for raked fixed-chair seating or for flat-floor general admission.
The Hall is named for Lubbock native Buddy Holly, who sparked a cultural revolution in the 1950s with his music, songwriting, and big framed glasses.
A signature feature of the Hall’s Christine DeVitt Main Lobby is its iconic donor wall depicting Holly playing a Stratocaster.
The site-specific sculpture weaves together 9,000 aluminum brushed bronze guitar picks in an array of sizes to create an image of Hall’s namesake.
Responding to the unique challenges of the site—from the intense Texas heat to its location in a flood plain—the design team has created a significant new space for the performing arts with world-class facilities that embody the spirit of the West Texas arts community.
Project: Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences
Architects: Diamond Schmitt Associates
Design Team: A.J. Diamond, Matthew Lella, Mike Lukasik, Cynthia Carbonneau, Mehdi Ghiyaei, Peter Kirby, Sarah Elliott, Jose Trinidad, Russell Wooten, Daniel Kassel, Wei Zhao, Joe Tang, Stephanie Huss, Kholisile Dhliwayo, Mike Moss, Richard Minckler, Kelly Knowles, Britni Wilkens, Stephen Drewell, Amber Richardson, and Erick Davila
Architects of Record: Parkhill
Design Team: Mike Moss, Richard Minckler, Kelly Knowles, and Britni Wilkens
Associate Architects: MWM Architects, Inc.
Landscape Architects: Parkhill
Client: Lubbock Entertainment and Performing Arts Association
General Contractor: Lee Lewis Construction, Inc.
Photographers: Casey Dunn and Dror Baldinger
