Smart Financial Centre

Situated south-west of Houston, Texas, the Smart Financial Centre combines the programs of a concert hall as well as that of civic and theatrical centers in a single shape adjusting venue. As the first civic edifice in the rapidly evolving urban district of Sugar Land, the Centre sets a new design paradigm for live performance spaces worldwide as well as for local and regional edifices to come.

Designed for flexibility and centered on an iconic bowl-shaped arena cradled by masonry walls, the 200,000 square-foot climate controlled venue features rapidly moveable walls that expand and contract to create four distinct seating capacities. In its largest configuration of 6,500 seats, the venue is the preeminent concert hall of the Houston area. Using deployable walls alongside balconies which extend down to the orchestra floor, the venue can be reduced to 4,600 seats for smaller performances by rising concert artists as well as civic events. Finally, at 2,900 seats, the hall offers patrons an elegant theatrical experience for Broadway shows and extravagant holiday spectacles. This manipulation of the audience chamber boundaries ensures an optimal theater-going experience for patrons, sure never to encounter the dreaded “half-empty” show of fixed room venues.

Rooted in the landscape of southern Texas, the Center is strategically situated and massed to serve as an architectural beacon in this rapidly emerging region of the Lone Star state. The structure, immediately discernable from neighboring thoroughfares, juxtaposes a curved glass curtainwall against oversized, gradated bricks that range from a deep gray at the building’s base to lighter tones at its apex. In addition, the venue’s exterior materiality is reflected in the interior of the venue to underscore the design’s seamless progression from outdoor to indoor space.