An award-winning Portland, Ore., architectural firm that has designed close to 60 theaters has been selected to draw plans for a new performing arts facility at the University of California, Davis. BOORA Architects will design the $42.5 million hall that will provide a state-of-the-art stage for both UC Davis talent and world-touring performers once it opens in the academic year 2001-2002. The hall, with 1,500 to 1,800 seats, will be the first of two arts buildings that will be constructed at the southern edge of UC Davis. It will be located near the campus's Walter A. Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center, between the arboretum and I-80. The facility is being financed with non-state campus funds and a $30 million fund-raising campaign. Plans also call for a 500-seat high-technology classroom/recital hall and a visual arts center to be built later, bringing total projected costs for the three buildings to $65 million. The complex will be called the Center for the Arts. "It's the project of a lifetime, really, for an architect," said Stan Boles, BOORA's lead architect. "Everybody in our office is really excited about this job. ... It has an incredible potential for establishing the image and identity of UC Davis," he said. "We're really ready to design a beautiful building." BOORA was one of 14 architectural firms nationwide that submitted proposals for the job. A campus selection committee narrowed the field to five semi-finalists and toured performance halls they had designed in San Diego, San Francisco, Chicago, and Portland and Eugene, Ore., before recommending two finalists. A chancellor's facilities and enterprise-policy committee made the final choice. Members of the selection committee said they were impressed by BOORA's other theater designs, its reputation for working closely with clients and its history of delivering on budget and on time. The 39-year-old firm has done work on more than 30 college campuses, and it was featured in the January 1997 issue of Architectural Record as one of the best-managed architectural firms. "First and foremost, we liked their architectural product," said Steven Weiss, director of university cultural programs, including UC Davis Presents. "We liked their style and method of getting the work done." "They are a talented group with wonderful credentials and an impressive track record of distinguished buildings," said Janelle Reinelt, chair of the dramatic art and dance department and a selection committee member. "They are also very communicative and approachable," she said. "The feeling of the committee, when we had our site visit with them, was that we would achieve a very close and efficient working relationship with them." Other projects designed by BOORA include the critically acclaimed Portland Center for the Performing Arts in Portland, Ore., the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the arts in Walnut Creek, an award-winning federal courthouse in Portland, Niketown in New York City, a theater and other arts buildings at UC Santa Cruz, and a fine arts building at UC Riverside. For the UC Davis performance hall, BOORA has assembled a team that includes specialists in theater design, lighting and acoustics. Acoustics specialists from McKay, Conant, Brook Inc., based near Thousand Oaks, have done acoustics and media systems design for about 200 auditoriums, 45 music schools and 40 schools for dance and drama nationwide and in Europe and Asia. Among the firm's projects have been improvements to Royce Hall and Schoenberg Auditorium at UC Los Angeles, renovation of Popejoy Hall at the University of New Mexico and acoustics design for the Probst Center for the Performing Arts in Thousand Oaks. The company's work at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Artemus Ham Hall, drew praise from violinist Isaac Stern. "We're very anxious that it does turn out to be a very fine place acoustically," said Wayne Slawson, chair of the music department and a member of the architect-selection committee. "I am pleased with the choice." The theater-design firm will be Auerbach + Associates in San Francisco, which has worked on UC Santa Cruz and UC Riverside arts facilities, the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, the Philadelphia Academy of Music and the Santa Fe Opera Theater. Its sister firm, lighting specialists Auerbach + Glasow, already has a track record at UC Davis, designing lighting for the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center, the Memorial Union and Shields Library. Other projects include college music halls in California, Washington and Texas. Rounding out the team are: Ove Arup and Partners, San Francisco, for structural, mechanical and electrical engineering; Morton and Pitalo, Sacramento, for civil engineering; Berkeley landscape architecture firm Peter Walker and Partners; San Anselmo financial planner Steven Bronfenbrenner; Hanscomb Inc., San Francisco, cost consultant; and International Parking Design Inc. of Oakland. Boles' architectural team began meeting with people at UC Davis this week before developing preliminary drawings. "A really important part of our process is to make sure we talk to all those different interest groups to make sure we're addressing everybody's concerns," he said. Campus officials hope selection of the architect will bring new momentum to the $30 million fund-raising campaign.