Messiah College – PAC Mechanicsburg, PA

Project Background

The Messiah Performing Arts Center is a 150,000 square foot addition and renovation to the existing Climenhaga Building at Messiah College.

The addition consisted of a 1,200 person symphony hall, a 120 person recital hall, teaching studios, practice rooms, choral, in-strument and chamber rehearsal rooms, a recording studio, faculty offices, a library, lobby spaces and auxiliary spaces.

Renovations to the existing Climenhaga building included a new black box studio, new restrooms and green rooms.

We began this project in May of 2011 and completed our work in April of 2013. The performing arts complex finished as a masonry masterpiece, but it did not come without challenges. In fact, it ranks high on the list as one of the most challenging projects that The Witmer Group has ever completed.

The architectural complexity of the design such as the radius walls and angled corners, steel bearing structure, wall heights and amount of interior masonry veneer were a few of the challenges we faced. The team worked diligently and collaboratively with the all other contractors and received raving reviews from the owner, architect and general contractor. The College now has an amazing performing arts facility that will last for years to come.