Project: The Globe Theater

When I studied abroad in London, I had the fortune of going to the Globe Theater three times.  Twice to see a play (The Comedy of Errors and Antony and Cleopatra), and once to have a behind the scenes look at the theater.  Although the behind the scenes tour was amazing to see, it also killed the sense of magic the Globe Theater has on its own.  While they told us a lot about how they mimicked the construction of the first Globe, they also showed us the high tech features built in and around the theater, which deprives the structure of its identity:  A building that defies time, as ageless as the stories that are told inside of it.

A Midsummer's Night Dream in 1599

For my project, I looked at tons of pictures of the new Globe Theater, the Old Globe Theater (in San Diego), and sketches and ideas of what the first Globe Theater may have looked like.  There is very little evidence or reports of the theater's specifications, so fortunately, a lot of elements were able to be smudged, such as the number of exits, or the height of the stage.

I started a basic globe theater a couple of months ago, but it is very sloppy, and I am restarting it from the ground up, knowing much more about BIM drawing than I did at the outset.  This is what I have for my first Globe:

My original Globe Theater (First Floor Only)

However, I think it is time for a restart, to create a more unified and cleaner Globe, and give it the dues it deserves in a BIM model.  It will also allow me to provide a step by step process on how I came about designing the structure.  

The first thing I did was make a blueprint similar to an A-sheet.  This picture isn't rotated to the traditional x-y axis, but it symmetric nonetheless.  The diameter of this theater is 100', and the stage is 40' x 20'.  I took the following steps to make this layout:

• The outside walls are 1' thick
• The distance from the back of the outside wall to the interior is 15'4".
• The fence of the first floor compartments is 4" thick.
• The exits are in the form of a pentagon, and measure 6' wide, with the remainder of the section used as stairs.
• The center of the circle is the front and middle of the stage.

First Floor Plan (rotated)

Tomorrow I will add the benches to the layout, and add some more details to the floor plan.  Even though it's tempting to drag the whole floor plan up to make it 3D, it is really important NOT TO DO IT.  It will make things MUCH more complicated than they need to be.  Until tomorrow,

Robert.