Architect Joe Gilleland's Designs Gave Us The Yavapai College Performance Hall

Architect Joe Gilleland is proud of his design concepts that came to be our Performance Hall. "A great performance arena raises expectations for both the performer and the audience, says Joe "and that's what you want." The building was designed to incorporate the art gallery as an appendix of the Performance Hall without violating the security of the ongoing art exhibits. Joe also had to design practice rooms into the music department that could not be heard from the classrooms. He called in the firm of Landry and Bougan who were theatrical consultants out of Palo Alto, California to help fine tune the designs and lend their much sought after expertise as to what makes a unique and workable performance arena.

Some interesting facts about the design of our Performance Hall are:

• Firms were called in to design independent mechanical systems that could isolate sound that would not interfere with performances.
• The air conditioning is designed to drop air at the level that the audience sits - no noisy rattling air conditioners up above.
• There is a "drape point" under the edge of the balcony that can be drawn to make the house smaller 500 to 600 seats.
• There are banners on the side of the walls that are designed to "tune the house" simply by lowering or raising them.
• The Performance Hall seating is designed so that the angle of vision is above the floor line of the stage. The highest part of the seat was intentionally taken out so that there wasn't a bad seat in the house.
• The sound in the Performance Hall is not augmented by a system. The concave pillow shape of the Performance Hall breaks up and disperses sound.
• The railing on the orchestra pit can be removed or moved for tuning.
• There is no center aisle in the Performance Hall. "Continental Seating" was used to maximize the number of prime seats. The center aisle are the best seats in the house.
• There is a full orchestra pit which can accommodate a 30 piece orchestra.

• Joe is retired now and he and his wife recently bought a house at Timber Point in Prescott. He plans on splitting his time between Prescott and Scottsdale. Thank you Joe for your beautiful design concepts that awe me everytime I enter the Yavapai College Performance Hall.