Wallace Design Collective

In the spring of 1907, a savvy group of Tulsa boosters dug into their own pockets and pooled the $200,000 necessary to acquire Muskogee’s Henry Kendall College. That September, when the transplanted Kendall College reopened its doors as Tulsa’s first institution of higher education, it had 11 employees. Two of them were music instructors.

For more than a century, TU’s theatre programs have enriched the local arts, bringing Tulsans productions ranging from Greek tragedies to modern epics rich with digital multi-media. Today, TU faculty, alumni, and students continue to participate in Tulsa’s arts organizations, lending their training and passion to the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Light Opera Oklahoma, Tulsa Opera and Tulsa Ballet Theatre.

The Lorton Performance Center is one of the most ambitious building projects in the University of Tulsa’s history, enhancing their outreach to the community and further solidifying their mission as a cornerstone of Tulsa’s cultural enrichment. Now the home of TU’s School of Music and the Department of Film Studies, the center boasts a 700-seat theatre with balcony, as well as a full performance stage with ballet floor, scenery fly and trap room, a hydraulic orchestra pit and the most technologically current theatrical lighting and acoustical control booths. Also included is a grand hall for art display and pre-function gatherings, recital halls, practice rooms, classroom faculty offices, studios, a film production suite and an electronic piano laboratory.

(landscape architecture services were provided by Howell & Vancuren before joining Wallace)

photos: ©Same Fentress Photography