Cordova High School Performing Arts Building

The new Performing Arts Building at Cordova High School will house a 464-seat performance space with orchestra pit and classrooms for choir, drama and band. Support spaces include a workshop for staging construction, orchestra shell storage, concessions, offices, and a large outdoor yard.

The main performance space presented the design team unique mechanical challenges not normally found in school facilities. Densely populated spaces require introducing large volumes of outside air ventilation. In selecting the main AC unit, Capital included an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) unit to provide the required level of air quality comfort at improved efficiency. The calculated 30 tons of cooling load for the main house was reduced to 23 tons with the use of the heat wheel ERV.

A second design challenge was acoustical treatments to minimize system HVAC noise in the theater. Eight duct attenuators, spring isolation cords and acoustic clouds were installed to achieve the desired noise reduction.