Bard College Celebrates the Topping Off of the new Performing Arts Lab

DBI acts as the project manager for this exciting development, overseeing the planning and construction of the project and building on our long-standing partnership with Bard. A topping off ceremony was held on Friday, December 6^th to commemorate the milestone. Speakers included Leon Botstein, Bard College President, Gideon Lester, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the Fisher Center, Taun Toay, Chief Financial Officer of Bard College, Maya Lin, project designer, and Bill Bialosky, Principal of Bialosky + Partners, the Architect of Record on the project.

The beautifully designed building will function as a laboratory for the performing arts in an architectural duo with the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center. Students and professional artists will work side by side, informing each other’s practices, sharing their discoveries, and debuting their works-in-progress with audiences from the Bard community and broader public. The lab will support the school’s dance, theater, opera, and orchestra departments and house artists in residence of Bard’s Fisher Center for the Arts.

Construction began this past June and is expected to open in early 2026. When completed, the spiral-shaped building’s curved façade, double-height windows, and sloped grass-covered roof will be a one-of-a-kind facility in tradition with Bard’s legacy of pioneering campus design.

DBI’s past work with Bard includes the development of the Bard College Berlin Residences student housing project on Bard’s campus in Germany, the Annandale-on-Hudson Student Residences and Student Center development, as well as master planning services on Bard’s Massena Campus following the school’s acquisition of the property. With billions in active education projects under management, DBI Projects is the foremost leader in project management of academic projects in the country.