Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston

A collaboration between the City of Houston and several nonprofit organizations, MATCH is a new home and centralized hub of creativity for a broad spectrum of Houston arts organizations. Performing and visual arts groups, previously dispersed across the city, now find opportunities for synergy and collaboration with one another. In addition to its function as a center for the arts, the project is a pivotal contributor to the revitalization of Midtown Houston and the city’s public transit corridor.

In collaboration with Studio RED Architects.

MATCH has become an accessible and vibrant destination that has enriched connectivity and reinforced the identity of the arts in Houston. A generous public breezeway serves as the building lobby where outdoor performances and community events can take place. The building’s perforated metal sun scrim and galvanized metal cladding land delicately upon the white steel frame, in contrast with neighboring buildings.

The building’s agile presence does not overtake its program. For this new Midtown theater and arts center, the soul of the building is internalized, and life illuminates from within the breezeway, theaters, rehearsal spaces, and control booths. The building remains in the background, allowing the exuberance of theater life and the visual arts to stand in the limelight. Florence Tang, AAIA

The Architects Newspaper

MATCH consists of four dedicated black-box theater spaces, two rehearsal spaces, classrooms, gallery space, and office space. The building was designed to acoustically buffer the urban outdoor noise, keeping performance sound inside the building and similarly isolating sound within each individual performance space.

MATCH’s lobby, art, and drama venues have become Midtown Houston’s gathering place. Each theater and gallery has a ‘storefront’ and lobby along the internal streetscape, outwardly expressing their image and craft to a varying and diverse audience. An overhanging roof provides shade for pedestrians and perforated metal panels provide protection from the sun and rain while allowing breezes to naturally ventilate the space.