Forced to delay construction due to the COVID pandemic, the theatre is open to the general public but primarily serves the residents of Canterbury Woods Senior Living Community. It is a multi-purpose rehearsal and performance space capable of accommodating 250 patrons. The venue offers a range of performances including concerts, live shows, dance, lecture series, movies, Buffalo Bills watch parties and more. The raised stage, combined with gently sloping floors and fan-shaped seating arrangement, thoughtfully balance clear sightlines, acoustic intimacy, and accessibility. The audio system includes a listening loop to accommodate people who use hearing aids.
The Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center is a uniquely curvilinear structure. The building uses 8- and 10-inch Insulated Concrete Formwork (ICF) made by Nudura to create a building with no right angles — all are built using radiused ICF forms.
In addition to completely radiused walls, the ICF walls also sloped from high to low as the wall transitions along its length. In all, the project used five different radii to create a unique, contemporary building that blends both form and function. The exterior Dryvit EIFS stucco finish helps to accentuate the flowing nature of the design.
According to the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, this 13,000-square-foot, 250-seat building was the largest ICF structure ever built with primarily radius walls in New York State. The walls support a steel frame and metal deck roofs at two different elevations. “With the impending Buffalo winter looming over our heads, we didn’t have time to field measure for the structural roof beams after the radius ICF walls were built,” recounts Andy Horgan, key account executive for Tremco CPG, the parent company of Nudura. “Beam lengths and bearing plate locations needed to be committed to early, and there was absolutely no room for error as the walls were being built. Five curved walls, each with a different radius and a different center point, had us all revisiting lessons in geometry.”
Canterbury Woods was the first major radiused ICF project for the ICF installer, Ideal Concrete from Cheektowaga, New York. It was also the first ICF project for the general contractor, Lehigh Construction Group of Orchard Park, New York. “Starting with the construction of the ICF walls, this building addition served as a learning ground for contractors and architects alike,” says Horgan.
While the manufacturer could perform some post-production modifications to the forms to get close to each radius, each individual form needed to be field-modified in order to ensure that the walls were plumb as they were constructed. To help simplify the installation process, Nudura pre-cut the radius forms at their factory before shipping. In addition to this pre-installation work, the edges of almost every single form needed to be shaved. An early snowfall resulted in the second snowiest November in Buffalo, and then another generational snowstorm in late December was another setback. Despite all of that, the project was completed on time and ready for the owner’s scheduled grand opening.
One of the primary goals was energy-efficient with ongoing low operational costs. One of the reasons ICFs were selected for the exterior load-bearing walls, was the material’s ability to easily construct the radius walls and provide a very tight building envelope. Enhanced sound attenuation and speed of construction were also relevant factors. Early energy data seems to show the building is meeting or exceeding its energy usage goals.
Featured on Season 4, Episode 5 of NRCMA’s Podcast Concrete Credentials
Winner:
2024 ICF Builder Heavy Commercial (2nd Runner Up) and People’s Choice Award
2023 AIA Buffalo/WNY Local Firm/Local Project
2023 Associated General Contractors NYS Jeffrey J. Zogg Build NY Award
