Project: Cuningham Group’s Deep Space Auditorium

Images courtesy of the Cuningham GroupAn underground shelter never looked so futuristic. The Cuningham Group recently released designs for Deep Space Auditorium—a 600,000-square-foot underground auditorium built for Epic Systems as the latest addition to the healthcare record company’s location in Verona, Wisconsin. The building will include a 6-acre green roof that, combined with the 14,300-seat underground auditorium space, will provide the least possible visual impact on fair Verona.

A key component of the auditorium’s exploration of cavernous underground space is the single transfer truss that supports the structure without the use of columns, expanding the scale of the space by allowing for clean sightlines throughout the auditorium. The underground space has several environmental benefits, according to John Cuningham, founder of Cuningham Group architecture and designer of the Deep Space Auditorium, “The below-grade setting perfectly suits the Deep Space Auditorium’s sustainable goals: Energy use is streamlined through its deep insulation and ground-source geothermal heat pumps.”

The achievement is unprecedented, as Cuningham explains: “The Deep Space Auditorium will be the world’s largest sustainably designed theater that is also predominantly underground,” adding that the space will provide “a dramatic experience for the user and a true technological achievement.”

You won’t have to wait long to see the results. The project is expected to be complete by Fall of 2013.