Show time!

Builders and artists partner for complex, phased construction

Crews building the $143 million Performing Arts Center and Artists Flats development in Columbia have embraced an uncommon mantra: The show must go on.

The development — which will create three new theaters, a dance studio, classrooms, art gallery and 174 mixed-income residences — is happening on the site of Toby’s Dinner Theatre. Consequently, the project team had to devise ways to enable Toby’s to continue operations even as early construction fully abutted two sides of the existing building.

“The smartest thing our team did was design the building as a whole then figure out how to separate it for two phases of construction,” said Matt Herbert, Principal at Design Collective.

Design Collective and the construction team led by The Whiting Turner Contracting Company collaborated with the developer, the county, the Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts and others to create a phased construction plan that would provide the safety, access, parking and sound control that Toby’s would need for its productions.

Those measures will enable the shows – including Mean Girls and White Christmas – to go on even when construction happens directly on top of Toby’s new theater space during phase 2.

“What impressed me the most is the integration of good acoustical design in the spatial layouts that inherently will provide acoustic buffers while under construction, but also allow for better acoustic performance when the entire project is complete,” Herbert said.

The use of masonry walls will increase mass and the inclusion of corridors will heighten sound isolation both during construction and afterwards. Those measures, he added, will enable the broad array of future activities at the center – from theater productions to dance recitals, art classes, children’s events, everyday residential living and more – to occur without interfering with each other.

The project is scheduled for completion in spring 2028.