The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park — The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park
The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, a permanent 10,000-capacity outdoor amphitheater on San Diego Bay and summer home of the San Diego Symphony, opened August 2021, designed by Tucker Sadler Architects with a tensile fabric-and-steel performance shell by Soundforms (with Flanagan Lawrence and Expedition), fabricated and installed by Fabritecture, and theatre planning by Schuler Shook.
| Venue | The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park |
|---|---|
| Project type | New Building |
| Status | Completed |
| Year completed | 2021 |
Credits
| Firm | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|
| tucker-sadler-architects | Architecture | |
| soundforms | Architecture | performance shell (tensile-fabric/steel-tube canopy) design, with Flanagan Lawrence and Expedition |
| fabritecture | Fabrication | tensile structure technical design, fabrication, and installation of the shell |
| burton-landscape-architecture-studio | Landscape Architecture | |
| charles-m-salter-associates | AV Integration | acoustic, AV, and IT consulting and acoustic paneling design; acoustics itself is outside this index's role vocabulary, AV design credited here |
| meyer-sound | AV Integration | designed the onstage acoustic enhancement system ('Constellation') |
| hlb | Lighting Design | Horton Lees Brogden; architectural lighting design, distinct from Schuler Shook's theatrical lighting/rigging scope |
| Schuler Shook | Lighting Design | theatre planning and consulting, theatrical lighting and rigging design, coordination of stage equipment within the tensile-fabric shell |
Description
Built on the Embarcadero Marina Park South site for roughly $85 million, the venue's irregular tensile-fabric canopy required close coordination between its shell designer (Soundforms), fabricator (Fabritecture), and theatre/AV consultants to integrate stage rigging, acoustics, and sound reinforcement within the structure. Landscape architecture was led by Burton Landscape Architecture Studio; acoustic, AV, and IT consulting by Charles M. Salter Associates; the onstage acoustic enhancement system by Meyer Sound and surround sound reinforcement by L-Acoustics; architectural lighting by HLB (Horton Lees Brogden), with theatrical lighting and rigging by Schuler Shook. Structural engineering was by Coffman Engineers, civil engineering by Moffat & Nichol, and MEP engineering by Robinson Engineering — not credited here as engineering is outside this index's role vocabulary. General contractor was Rudolph and Sletten.