“For the last four decades, A.R.T. has had a beautiful home at the Loeb Drama Center, but over time our vision has expanded and so has our work. Our focus on students, audiences, and how we build community is now at the center of what we do. Porous and welcoming, the intentional architecture of A.R.T.’s new home will galvanize creativity and collaboration and fuel our mission to expand the boundaries of theater for decades to come,” said A.R.T. Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director Diane Paulus ’88.

A.R.T. announced in 2019 it had selected Haworth Tompkins to lead a team that includes theatrical consultant Charcoalblue and Boston-based ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge to design its future home.

The project is the first building in the U.S. designed by U.K.-based Haworth Tompkins, which won 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.

The A.R.T. selected Haworth Tompkins 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.

The new center for creativity and performance is designed to meet Harvard’s ambitious sustainability goals and priorities and to serve as a model for the next generation of cultural architecture through its core principles of openness, artistic flexibility, collaboration, sustainability, and regenerative design. Both the center and the accompanying residential building are pursuing Living Building Challenge core certification from the International Living Future Institute.

“Theater is about exploring our shared humanity in a space where people of all backgrounds come together and are invited to open their hearts. Through an inspiring and collaborative design process, our building aims to extend that open invitation to Allston and the wider world, and to provide a framework that supports the expansion of creative practices within a radical yet simple architecture of adaptable space, natural tactile materials, fresh air, and light,” said Roger Watts, director of Haworth Tompkins.

Through several years of collaborative conversations with the community, the BPDA, the A.R.T., and the architect teams, the center for creativity and performance underwent considerable refinement to dovetail the spatial and urban program with the existing Allston neighborhood, the emerging urban plan, and A.R.T.’s developing organizational vision.

A.R.T. expects to break ground in 2024 and begin producing in the new facility in late fall 2026.

“Thanks to our incredible design team, our Harvard collaborators, the community, A.R.T.’s boards and staff, and the BPDA, we’ve arrived at this essential moment: the opportunity to build a center for creativity and performance that serves A.R.T.’s ever-expanding vision of how to expand the boundaries of theater in partnership with our greater community,” said A.R.T. Executive Director Kelvin Dinkins Jr.