Hippodrome Addition

Situated in the heart of downtown Gainesville lies the Hippodrome, a theater founded in 1973 within the confines of an existing post office built in 1911. This project is an addition to that theater for a new performance space that must fit within the small plaza surrounding the existing building.

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The new dance hall delicately clings to the top half of the Hippodrome's western wall. It hovers over the plaza below, and it is accessible from the gallery that wraps around the Hippodrome to the south. This intervention extends the theater's roof with a new translucent canopy to flood the gallery and main circulation with light while visitors are invited to pause in the new urban park carved out of the earth itself.