Insights
7月 20, 2026 _ insights
Mapping the Patron Arrival Experience: Research-Informed Theater Design
The performing arts industry is currently facing several challenges in bringing patrons back to venues, including shifts in audience behavior, financial pressures, and strong competition from other entertainment options. In this context, improving the theatrical experience and increasing patron satisfaction are especially important goals for arts venues. Yet, much of theater marketing has traditionally emphasized services like catering, parking, and ticket prices, while paying less attention to the actual experience patrons have inside the theater building itself.
That experience begins well before the performance starts and includes a sequence of actions and behaviors, such as security screening, ticketing, wayfinding, concession and restroom use. By better understanding how patrons use the arrival zone, designers and operators can support the redesign of historic performing arts theaters in ways that strengthen the full, holistic theater experience.
“The experience of live performance begins well before the curtain goes up,” says GBBN’s Director of Arts, Marcene Kinney. “It begins with choreographing how people arrive, move through the building and feel a sense of anticipation.”
At this year’s Environmental Design Research Association conference, I presented research developed with my GBBN colleagues Emre Erenler, Jesssica Gilbert, and Zahra Daneshvar on how patrons use theater arrival spaces. The presentation shared two case studies that used mixed methods, including observation, behavior mapping, and Space Syntax analyses, to examine how people use the entrance lobby, ticketing stations, bar and merchandise concessions, and restrooms before a show begins.
This integrated research protocol was originally developed for healthcare arrival studies and was tested for the first time in arts and cultural facilities. The first case study employed onsite observations and photographic recording, resulting in the collection of 4,850 patron data points for analysis. Observational data were further validated through Space Syntax analyses. Patron movement throughout the arrival zone was mapped and animated, which helped reveal high- and low-occupancy areas as well as blind spots. Even though patrons were spread evenly throughout the lobby, the bars, merchandise concessions, and ticketing stations were not used equally. This difference was linked to the spatial configuration and existing design features of the space.
The second case study used Space Syntax analyses to examine the main lobby of a large performing arts center with occupancy patterns mapped during a show night. As with the first study, the field data were validated through Space Syntax analyses, including visual integration and connectivity analyses. Based on the findings, a series of design improvements was recommended.
Overall, this session made a compelling argument for evidence-based, patron-centered design strategies for performing arts venues. More broadly, research like this can help theater operators get the most out of design by showing how public spaces such as lobbies and arrival sequences can shape and improve the patron experience.
See the presentation here.
Learn more about our work with historic theaters here.
Learn more about research at GBBN here.
Shan Jiang, Ph.D, is an associate principal and the director of research at GBBN. An established researcher, educator, and thought leader, she has published dozens of articles in peer-reviewed journals, presented at conferences, and recently published a full monograph with Routledge on therapeutic landscapes, healthcare design, and sustainable community development. At GBBN, Shan leads firm-wide research efforts, helping design teams in all markets conduct research while drawing on the best, established research to inform their work.
