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Set Pieces: Architecture for the Performing Arts in Fifteen Fragments

Diamond Schmitt’s portfolio of world-class performing arts venues spans from Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre to the Mariinsky II Theatre in Saint Petersburg. This book offers a behind-the-scenes look at these vital cultural spaces with insights from co-founder Don Schmitt and principal Matthew Lella, and a photo essay that serves as a backstage pass.

Diagrams, drawings and images reveal the innovation and craftsmanship behind the design details — including the geometric acoustic reflector at Marlborough College’s Memorial Hall and David Geffen Hall’s ethereal firefly lights. In two essays, Justin Davidson and Kate Wagner weigh in on why concert halls and acoustics matter, while interviews with Canadian playwright and director Robert Lepage and set designer Mimi Lien offer a well-rounded perspective on the spaces that bring performances to life. 

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Elevated: Art on the High Line

New York City has no shortage of top-tier art institutions. But even if you never set foot in a traditional gallery, you’d be able to access inspiring installations, performances and more just by walking the High Line. Free to all and open 365 days a year, the elevated rail park hosts the city’s largest public art program to occupy a single venue. This title from Monacelli highlights the many works that have graced the High Line, with artist interviews that delve into the inspirations and processes behind them. In the opening conversation with curator Cecilia Alemani, she explains her guiding principle, which is to show that public art is more than monuments, memorials and “plop art,” or works that fail to connect meaningfully with their site. “We also invite the public to provide commentary and input to fuel discussions around what ultimately gets selected,” she notes. “It helps keep the ‘public’ in public art.” Available September 24.

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Placeness and the Performative Production of Space

How do places generate meaning? This book seeks to answer the question through an interdisciplinary analysis that views spaces through two lenses: architecture and performance studies. “Architecture conditions the possible futures that will take place in space as a stage or scenario. Because architecture inseparably includes its own narratives,” explains Javier Ruiz Sánchez, professor of urban planning at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, in his foreword. The introduction illustrates this concept through a case study of Verona’s Casa di Giulietta, an ordinary house that, despite its historical inaccuracy (Shakespeare likely never visited Verona, and the first production of Romeo and Juliet didn’t even have a balcony scene), has become an Instagrammable tourist attraction. Other chapters dive deep into the design of theatre spaces and the digitization of place and performance. ​Available October 17.