A building to foster groundbreaking performance, public gathering, teaching, and international research, the David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity & Performance was designed by Haworth Tompkins (architect and design lead) and ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge (architect of record) in collaboration with theater and acoustic consultant Charcoalblue. Shawmut Design and Construction is the project’s construction manager. 

“It is thrilling to see the David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Performance & Creativity begin to rise at 175 N. Harvard Street,” said Diane Paulus, the Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director of the A.R.T. “Our new home will provide many exciting new opportunities for the A.R.T. to use the galvanizing power of theater to bring people together and build community. I’m grateful to our generous supporters, our brilliant, innovative partners, and to Harvard University for helping us reach this milestone.”  

The Goel Center will contain interconnected, adaptable multiuse spaces designed to support creativity and embrace future change. It will include two flexible performance venues — the West Stage, where large-scale productions will be produced, and the versatile and intimate East Stage.

In addition, the center will house light-filled, state-of-the-art rehearsal studios and teaching spaces, a spacious public lobby, and an outdoor performance yard to host ticketed and free programming. The facility will also include dressing rooms, technical shops, and administrative offices for the organization, as well as a café.  

The building is designed to achieve the Living Building Challenge core accreditation from the International Living Future Institute in recognition that it will give more to its environment than it takes. Conceived through core principles of openness, artistic flexibility, collaboration, sustainability, and regenerative design, it will be constructed with laminate mass timber, reclaimed brick, and cedar cladding to minimize its lifetime carbon budget.