I am not personally familiar with them but this can get rather complicated. Probably the important things to understand is that for most commercial facility design projects the Architect is the 'head' of the design team but that team also typically includes a Structural Engineer, a Civil Engineer, an Electrical Engineer, a Mechanical Engineer, a Plumbing Engineer, a Life
Safety Engineer or Consultant and any other relevant experts such as a Kitchen Consultant or Pool Consultant. In the case of a
theatre, that additional expertise might also include consultants for general
theatre planning, rigging, performance lighting, audio/audiovisual,
acoustics,
etc. You may have one firm that provides all of the related these roles/services or you may have a team of experts in each individual area or you may have something in between. What usually really matters is that the team can bring all the required expertise and experience and can work together well.
It is sometimes easy to think that if you have all the necessary consultants and experts than they can guide an Architect that has no experience with a performing arts facility and there is some validity to that perspective. However, the Architect then has to be open to being guided and accepting the expertise of those on their team. It's all too easy for people to focus on their elements and to have nobody looking at the big picture, which then too easily results in things like Architects focusing solely on the Architecture, which is the aspect for which they will be judged, and not on the overall functionality of the
venue. Architects, Electrical Engineers, Structural Engineers,
etc. that have been through
theatre projects in the past may still need all the same additional expertise involved but typically have a better understanding of the issues and considerations that are likely to be involved and how to best work with one another.
What makes this real fun for some public school projects is that often the Architect is hired before some of the Consultants or a team is selected based on the qualifications of the firms for educational projects but not specifically for performing arts projects. Not having the proper paperwork or being a registered vendor or whatever will often qualify a firm for contention, or disqualify them from contention, much quicker or easier than their actual technical qualifications or experience. It's the government and sometimes what is said is not as important as how it is said.
