Fisher Dachs Associates is one of the world’s leading theatre planning and design consultants. Since its formation more than 30 years ago, FDA has helped create over 400 performing arts projects, from small repertory theatres to large multipurpose theatres throughout the U.S. and abroad. Our clients include commercial and non-profit theaters, universities, cities and cultural organizations like the Miami and Detroit operas, Guthrie Theatre, Radio City Music Hall, The Hollywood Bowl and Lincoln Center. Our international assignments include performing arts projects in Singapore, Korea, Taiwan and Mexico.
We work with artistic directors, cultural organizations, building owners and architects to design intimate, dynamic, technically superb and functional spaces for musicians, dancers, opera singers, Broadway shows, and theatre artists of every kind, from solo performers to large ensembles.
FDA has as its mission the planning and design of performing arts and entertainment projects that share Jules Fisher’s original vision: that every audience member experience the unique delights of live performance.
The value we bring to the design process is our special understanding of how theatres work. We believe theatres should be designed from the inside out to reflect their function and function well. When we are asked to help plan and design a new performance space, our first task is to help our clients describe their needs and intentions, to ask: what will this theatre be used for? Only then can we determine the size and type of performance space that will best meet the intended purpose. Part of our job is supplying technical advice on stage equipment, dimmer boards, rigging - the physical components of a working theatre. But our work begins long before that, because a successful and exciting theatre is more than a well-equipped theatre: it is a theatre that is a highly functioning tool for its staff and performers, and a place of mystery and magic for audiences.
Among FDA’s projects are a new, 2,200-seat opera house and 2,400-seat concert hall for the City of Miami; a renovated 2,500-seat Civic Center in downtown Oklahoma City; a new three-theatre complex for the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, and a new music hall for downtown Houston. FDA is part of the design team renovating the Hollywood Bowl, Washington’s Arena Stage Theatre, and Harvard’s venerable Hasty Pudding Theatre. Our college and university clients include Columbia, Harvard and Boston universities; Middlebury College, Texas Christian University, Georgetown University, Texas A and M, and the University of Northern Iowa.
We work with theatres of all sizes and purposes, from a new 299-seat home for the Second Stage, one of NYC's finest off-Broadway companies, the 475-seat Joyce Theatre in New York, acclaimed by dancers for its excellent sightlines and intimacy, and the award-winning renovation of the ornate, 4,000-seat Wang Center. FDA currently is completing work on civic centers in Oklahoma City and Jacksonville, Florida.
College and university projects, comprising almost 50% of our work, include new and renovated performance spaces for California Institute for the Arts, the University of North Carolina, Texas Christian University, Florida Atlantic University and the University of Northern Iowa. We have completed spaces for Harvard, Columbia, and Boston universities, Middlebury College, the University of Wisconsin and Ohio State University.
Our professional staff members have diverse professional backgrounds in architecture, theatrical equipment manufacturing, stage management, and producing, and experience as set and lighting designers for stage and television. Our experience working in theatre is greatly enhanced by Jules Fisher's active career as an award-winning lighting designer for Broadway and international stages. FDA's excellence derives from its experience: because we know theatre intimately, we know how to design theatres that work.
Copyright 2001 Fisher Dachs Associates