Armourcoat have provided a hand-finished, polished plaster finish to a new, ‘egg-shaped’ four-storey atrium at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington D.C.
The school reopened last year following a multi-million dollar renovation, with the interiors
features the gigantic oval-shaped structure, the Duke Ellington Theatre, as its focal point.
Inside the ‘egg’ is a full-sized 800 seat theatre, featuring an orchestra pit, catwalks
and high-performing acoustics.
Advanced BIM modelling and 3D laser scanning techniques were used to aid the intricate design
of the theatre, which upon construction, saw the outer shell finely hand-finished in Armourcoat
polished plaster.
Piano keys were used as inspiration for the interior, which features crisp white wall finishes with black accents, paying homage to legendary musician and Washington D.C. born Edward Kennedy ‘Duke’ Ellington.
Chris Ambridge, Associate Principal at cg+s architects, commented on why Armourcoat was chosen for the project: “The decision was important since the theatre is the centrepiece at the heart of the school.
“We found a precedent in London of a similarly complex application and quickly became comfortable that Armourcoat was the right product for our project in terms of cost, schedule and aesthetics.
He said both the project team and client were delighted with the result, praising the ‘sophisticated’ and ‘durable’ finish and expressed his desire to have opportunities to use Armourcoat again in the future.
