Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center of La Jolla Playhouse

The 50,000-sq.-ft. La Jolla Playhouse includes the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre, a black-box, experimental theater that seats up to 450 people, 7,000 sq. ft. of rehearsal space and a warehouse. The almost 11,000 sq. ft. of administrative space has allowed theater staff to leave the temporary trailers they used as offices for 20 years.

La Jolla Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer. It is a nonprofit professional theater in residence on the UC San Diego campus. The university owns and shares the facilities with the theater company, which has garnered more than 300 major honors, including the 1993 Tony Award as America's Outstanding Regional Theater.

Nearly 60 years after La Jolla Playhouse was founded, theater-goers enjoyed "Private Fittings," the inaugural performance of the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center, the new centerpiece of the UC San Diego theater district.

"La Jolla Playhouse worked with us to better understand their theatrical needs, and in doing that, it enabled us to provide them with a better product," said Aaron Liles, project manager with Rudolph and Sletten.

"In the early development stage, Leigh Proudfoot [chief estimator at Rudolph and Sletten] was essential to helping us complete the delicate balance between the architecture and the building program," said Ellery Brown, director of operations for the playhouse. "He was phenomenal throughout the early stages in helping us work with the architects and with the various trades to identify items that we could economize on."

One of the most unique aspects of the $13-million project was building a masonry wall that slants nine feet out of plumb. Kris Specht, Rudolph and Sletten's senior superintendent, created a three-dimensional replica of the complex design so the subcontractors could understand the precise dimensions and challenges of this wall. The leaning wall needed to meet rooflines exactly, with no margin for error.

"To control the lean, we used a straight pole at each corner and tilted the pole to the exact coordinate, and then built the wall to match the pole," Specht said. "The masons nailed the model to the pallet next to the wall so they could count the courses of plywood and see where their next point could be."

The model was also the highlight of building tours with donors, Brown said. "That's the extra step that Rudolph and Sletten provided."

Judges' Comments:
"A very challenging project to construct within budget."

Project Team:

Owner: University of California, San Diego
Architects: Roto Architects Inc. and Fisher Sehgal Yanez Inc.
Construction manager: Rudolph and Sletten
Landscape architect: Burton Associates
Engineering team:
Structural: Nabih Youssaf & Associates
Mechanical: Merrick & Associates
Electrical: Syska Hennessey Group Inc.
Civil: Robert Bein William Frost & Associates
Key subcontractors:
Neal Electric
Dittman Masonry
McMahon Steel (structural)
AO Reed & Co. (plumbing and HVAC)
La Mesa Glass Inc.
San Diego Granite (flooring)
Stagecraft (theatrical equipment)

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