at NAWBO-NY Signature Awards Event, March 2008
Please tell us about your business
My business is Sachs Morgan Studio, and we design theater buildings for the national performing arts community. Our clients tell us that we design theaters that work for their owners, their patrons, and for the theater professionals that use them. We design theaters people love!
Anna Sachs – photo by Amy Fletcher*
Would you like to share a few examples?
Sure, one of my favorite projects is the theater in the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. It took about ten or eleven years to develop. . Lots of our projects are lengthy because they start in the conceptual phase and then often pause for a fundraising phase, then after the funds are in place there is design development, construction documents and then construction of the building itself. These are long projects!
The concept of the theater at the National Museum of the American Indian was inspired by the original American Indian architect that headed it up. Everything was designed in a circle, based on the “circle of life”, which of course is the “way of the people”. It was very challenging for the theater component of the project, that there were to be NO straight lines in the theater; not one in the whole building. . As an audience member you can access the stage from the audience, which works beautifully for American Indian pageants, and also provides good accessibility for the disabled: anybody in a wheelchair, or any parent with a stroller can just go right up and across the stage and then come right down the other side. It’s all about that circle – there is a free flowing feeling about it. The Museum uses it once a week for their meetings, which makes us very proud. Read more