Scope: Audiovisual Design, Architectural Acoustics

CTA provided acoustical consulting and full audiovisual design services for the adaptive re-use of the historic 1920’s theater into a modern performance hall, cinema, and music school. The Main and balcony Cinemas have state-of-the-art audio and video projection systems to present first-run films.

This project is extremely unique in that the historic performance hall can be used as a typical stage and audience setup (shown below with the CTA-designed speaker system), but can also be transformed into a balcony cinema to show films when the hall is not booked for a concert or other stage event. This required the design of a retractable series of screening elements, audio equipment, and an acoustical curtain at the front of the balcony. From our research during the design phase of this space, we realized there was no precedent for achieving a professional-level cinema experience in a convertible manner like such.

The United Theater was a recipient of a 2023 Rhody Award for historic preservation