City of Walnut Creek and Lesher Center for the Arts Unveil Solar Acoustic Courtyard Canopy at 1601 Civic Drive

Performing arts administrators with the City of Walnut Creek Lesher Center for the Arts and board leaders from the Diablo Regional Arts Association unveiled a sculpted 2,800-square-foot Solar Acoustic Courtyard Canopy and outdoor cabaret reception plaza on Saturday evening at the corner of 1601 Civic Drive and Locust Street in downtown Walnut Creek. Serving as the open-air forecourt for the Hofmann Theatre, Margaret Lesher Theatre, Stage 3, and the Bedford Gallery, the terrace hosts more than 300,000 annual theatergoers, symphony subscribers, and downtown gallery visitors.

Designed to transform the sunny concrete plaza into a year-round outdoor performance and intermission venue, structural steel fabricators erected a sweeping cantilevered white steel trellis supporting laminated architectural glass modules embedded with 24 kilowatts of semi-transparent monocrystalline photovoltaic cells. Beneath the glass, micro-perforated acoustic aluminum baffles absorb street traffic reflections from Locust Street and Civic Drive while projecting crisp natural acoustics from the corner cabaret stage.

Integrated into the overhead ribs, thirty-two dimmable 2,700-Kelvin warm LED downlights and six high-efficiency electric radiant heaters keep evening intermission gatherings comfortable through late autumn and winter runs by Center REP, California Symphony, and Diablo Ballet. Clean electricity generated by the rooftop solar canopy feeds directly into the theater's lobby lighting and box-office switchboard.

The $495,000 courtyard transformation was funded through a public-private partnership between the City of Walnut Creek Arts + Rec Department and the Diablo Regional Arts Association. Walnut Creek patrons can browse the winter theater and outdoor jazz series schedule on the Lesher Center for the Arts Official Portal.