Performing arts venues for five resident companies (Dallas Opera, Dallas Theater Center, Texas Ballet Theater, Dallas Black Dance Theater, and the Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico) fall under the umbrella of the AT&T Performing Arts Center that includes four buildings and one urban park. One of these buildings, the Winspear Opera House, is home to the Dallas Opera and the Texas Ballet Theater, with acoustics designed specifically for them. The curved walls surrounding the 2,200-seat horseshoe-shaped performance hall are clad in luminous red glass. Rising above the surrounding canopy, the glowing red curve is the signature of the Arts District on the Dallas night skyline. The transparent exterior enclosure, the Annette and Harold Simmons Signature Glass Facade, forms the lobbies and has a retractable 84-foot-wide section to open to the outdoor Performance Park (2010, Michel Desvigne, with JJR), which is protected by a 60-foot-high solar canopy, the Grand Portico. The canopy extends beyond the facade in all directions, its precisely arranged louvers providing a microclimate over lawns, pools, wildflowers, and paved areas.
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Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House
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