Regeneratively-designed building will include interconnected and adaptable multi-use spaces to support creativity and embrace future change.
A building to foster groundbreaking performance, public gathering, teaching, and international research, the David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity & Performance was designed by Haworth Tompkins (architect and design lead) and ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge (architect of record) in collaboration with theater and acoustic consultant Charcoalblue. Shawmut Design and Construction serves as the project’s construction manager. The David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity & Performance will contain interconnected, adaptable multi-use spaces designed to support creativity and embrace future change. The center will include two flexible performance venues—the West Stage, where large-scale productions will be produced, and the versatile and intimate East Stage—as well as light-filled, state-of-the-art rehearsal studios and teaching spaces, a spacious public lobby, and an outdoor performance yard to host ticketed and free programming. The center will also include dressing rooms, technical shops, and administrative offices for the organization, as well as a modest café.
The A.R.T.’s new home has been conceived and will be programmed to center community. It will be open to all during designated hours of operation, offering free Wi-Fi, food and beverage service, public restrooms, gathering spaces, indoor and outdoor public art and performance, and room rental opportunities. Designed with a blend of environmental and social strategies to minimize embodied and operational carbon, maximize wellbeing, boost biodiversity, and enhance resiliency, the David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity & Performance embraces Harvard’s ambitious sustainability priorities. The building is designed to achieve the Living Building Challenge core accreditation from the International Living Future Institute in recognition that it gives more to its environment than it takes.
Conceived through core principles of openness, artistic flexibility, collaboration, sustainability, and regenerative design, it will be constructed with laminate mass timber, reclaimed brick, and cedar cladding to minimize its lifetime carbon budget. The building’s chilled water, hot water, and electric utilities will come from Harvard’s new lower-carbon District Energy Facility. It will capture additional clean energy from rooftop solar panels and leverage natural ventilation to reduce energy usage and enhance occupant comfort. Additionally, a green roof and extensive plantings will aid stormwater attenuation while increasing biodiversity and occupant wellbeing. Read more about this exciting project here.
Pembroke Mill Lane for Pembroke College, Cambridge, has been shortlisted for the 2026 RIBA Stirling Prize, the UK's most prestigious award for architecture.
Wonderful to see the new performance spaces at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) alive with performance, rehearsal and teaching.
Pembroke Mill Lane, Cambridge has received a RIBA National Award.
Haworth Tompkins has been shortlisted in two categories at this year's Building Design Architect of the Year Awards.
We are so pleased to see The Court Theatre continue to receive industry recognition, with multiple honours at Friday night's Property Council New Zealand Industry Awards, including the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Judges' Choice Award.
In the second of three NLA articles, Tom Gibson, Associate Director at Haworth Tompkins, reflects on the practice’s international mass timber projects and the lessons they offer for timber construction in the UK.
Last week, Haworth Tompkins received the Dewi-Prys Thomas Award for our work on Theatr Clwyd in Mold, North Wales. The award celebrates the role of design in improving quality of life and supporting regeneration across Wales.
The redevelopment of Pembroke Mill Lane, Cambridge, for Pembroke College has been recognised with four RIBA awards, including a 2026 RIBA East Award, Building of the Year, Project Architect and the Conservation Award.
| 25.03.26 | Mass Timber Design Innovations: from fire strategy to carbon reduction, the challenges and opportunities of designing with timber. → |
| 30.10.25 | Construction Reaches Topping Off Milestone for the New Home of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University → |
| 28.07.25 | Haworth Tompkins reveals plans for the redevelopment of Grade I listed De La Warr Pavilion → |
| 13.05.25 | Haworth Tompkins to lead design of affordable housing in £2.5 Billion York Central Regeneration → |