The main building, designated as a historical landmark in 2006, was preserved.
(meta data) TITLE:  Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts / Allied Works Architecture | ArchDaily the world's most visited architecture website News & Topics Log out Monthly Topics Top 100 # Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts / Allied Works Architecture 00:00 - 7 March, 2011 Save this project Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts / Allied Works Architecture Save this picture! © Jeremy Bittermann + 14 ### Architects Allied Works Architecture ### Location 2501 Flora St, Dallas, TX 75201, USA ### Category High School Text description provided by the architects. Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts is a building that supports the production of young artists. Where the school excels in the academic preparation of its students, it aspires to forge rigorous, creative thinkers and makers in spaces that inspire ideas and provoke experimentation and production. The 200,000 sqf expansion to the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, designed by Allied Works Architecture, includes areas for the core programs of music, dance, theater, and visual arts, as well as spaces for assembly and traditional academic instruction. The expansion is organized as simple loft spaces of concrete, brick and glass that rotate around and extend outward from an open-air central amphitheater, known to students as the 'Green Room'. The program clusters are contained in distinct volumes that provide individual identity yet overlap adjacent disciplines in plan and section. Project description, images and drawings following the break. Save this picture! © Vicky Sambunaris Located in the Arts District in central Dallas, the school has a history of firsts: as Dallas' first all-black high school when it opened in 1922, then in 1974 as Dallas' first public arts magnet high school. In direct contrast to the surrounding cultural institutions, important buildings that preserve and present icons of the visual and performing arts, the new school manifests the qualities of creative industry: workshop, forge, studio and factory. The forms are elemental, the space and materials – raw and visceral. Save this picture! © Vicky Sambunaris In this context, the building has two charges: to compress and hold the creative energy of the school, while simultaneously connecting to the surrounding community with the production and presentation of new ideas and possibilities. The community is invited to share in the life and vitality of the students with glimpses into workshops and studios and through various presentation venues, yet the students feel protected. The architecture nurtures the individual creative pursuit while inspiring the students to send their work out into the world. It is a place where art, artists and ideas are made, a place of genesis in work and life. Save this picture! © Jeremy Bittermann New performance spaces are contained throughout the building, inviting the public to share in the energy of the school. These include an experimental 'Black Box' Theater held by the wings of the existing 1922 building, and the 475-seat Montgomery Arts Theater, a full proscenium theater that serves as a dramatic new public gateway from the Arts District. Save this picture! © Jeremy Bittermann From within, the life of the school is revealed in two four-story atriums that provide circulation, light and views. Substantial new outdoor areas create spaces of interaction and protection from the elements. Overall, the building strikes a balance between porosity and density, openness and introspection, in order that students are able to create freely and take risks with their art while still being engaged with their city, their audience, and the surrounding Arts District. Save this picture! © Jeremy Bittermann Entering the building one is instantly engaged in movement, sound and activity. The four story building pinwheels around the outdoor performance space. It is an urban school, vertical and condensed. The artistic disciplines are encouraged to intermingle by their room placement and through the myriad and diverse spaces to reflect, converse, practice and perform. Save this picture! The building is filled with the sights and sounds of production. Music comes from every corner, art hangs from the walls and balconies, dancers stretch on the railings and actors rehearse their lines in the halls. The building provides raw classrooms and studios for practice and production, while the corridors, atria and courtyards support the theater of collective movement and interaction. There are also infinite possibilities to find space for oneself; stairs, edges and landings to sit and write, practice and reflect. ## View the complete gallery ## Project location Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address. Save this project About this office Allied Works Architecture ## Product: ## See more: Built Projects Selected Projects Educational Architecture High School Cite: "Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts / Allied Works Architecture" 07 Mar 2011. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/117149/booker-t-washington-high-school-for-the-performing-and-visual-arts-allied-works-architecture/> ISSN 0719-8884 Read comments Read comments ## 世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本! ### 想浏览ArchDaily中国吗? ### You've started following your first account! ### Did you know? You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users. 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Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts
History.

 In 1976, the school was repurposed as the Arts Magnet at Booker T. Washington High School, inheriting and expanding the magnet-school arts curriculum that had been in place in the Performing Arts Cluster at Skyline High School since 1970.  The Arts Magnet would become a prototype for magnet schools across the country.  The repurposing was part of the Federal Court Desegregation Orders that created the Magnet School system in Dallas ISD ("Tasby v. Estes"")".   Paul Baker was selected by Superintendent Estes has Founding Director of the School. 
 The neighborhood surrounding Washington has evolved into the Dallas Arts District and the main school building was designated an official Dallas Landmark in 2006. In 2008, the building was enlarged a third time when a new $65 million facility designed by Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture, was completed.