For students at Baton Rouge Center for Visual and Performing Arts, today marks the first day of school on the new campus, a $34.4 million investment in arts-integrated education by East Baton Rouge Parish Schools and program manager CSRS. Tipton, led by principal Shane Higdon, and their joint-venture partner RHH Architects were engaged by EBRPSS in 2023 for the design and construction of a replacement campus for the popular but aging institution. The new 80,000 sf facility includes classroms for grades from early-learning to fifth grade, with exploratory opportunities in various media.
Most crucially, in an era when many schools are situating a stage in their cafeteria, BRCVPA puts performing arts first with a spectacular auditorium, of particular satisfaction to co-project architect Chris Doiron. A black-box theatre suits smaller productions and opens onto the courtyard and ampitheatre. The design for the campus incorporated the school community’s aspirations and needs, including the preservation of oak trees that gave the leafy campus a homey atmosphere and a fix for the traffic snarl that made Acadian Thruway a slog during carpool hours. “I love that I can sit at my desk and have this big beautiful tree out there,” said teacher Timothy Callais in The Advocate’s preview of the new campus. “And I’m like, ‘I know where I am. I’m home!’”
Dr. Louis Moore, principal at BRCVPA, expressed appreciation to The Advocate that Tipton and RHH listened to the teachers and parents in our design development. “Oh my goodness, when they came out with their drawings, it blew my mind. It was like 95% what we wanted.”
The general contractor was Ratcliff Companies/VPG Construction. Consultants included Salas O’Brien, EDS, Fox-Nesbit, Civil Solutions, McKnight Landscape Architecture, and Intelligent Transport Systems.
Tipton’s lead interior designer and principal, Fabie Bennett Derbigny, relished the challenge to incorporate the whole rainbow into BRCVPA’s color story. Grade levels are identified by color. The media center and cafeteria are alive with pops of green and yellow. For attendees of the school’s stacked performance schedule, a vibrant fuchsia ornaments the auditorium stage. “I know the teachers are looking forward to using the specific color names in their lessons,” said Derbigny. “We had fun figuring out where the colors begin and end and holding firm to the design intent to include all the colors of the rainbow.”