Kingsbrae Garden Amphitheatre

An open-air venue for the Kingsbrae International Residence for the Arts, designed as soil-reinforced tiers and inspected through construction.

Kingsbrae Garden preserves the former estate of John and Lucinda Flemer: an 11-hectare horticultural masterpiece open to the public since 1998, with arts and culture additions nearly every year. When the Kingsbrae International Residence for the Arts (KIRA) was established in 2016, an on-site open-air amphitheatre was imagined to promote the arts.

Seating as structure

We designed the tiered seating as a soil-reinforced retaining structure built from Redi-Rock concrete blocks: 12 tiers using 506 blocks in all, separated into three sections so rows of steps give the audience access. Spectators can sit directly on the concrete or place a portable chair on the artificial turf laid between the seats of each tier.

Built as intended

Design was completed in the fall of 2017, with construction and our periodic quality control inspections of concrete, material compaction and block placement from January to May 2018.