Nestled against the backdrop of Montana’s Beartooth Mountains, Tippet Rise Art Center presents performances by internationally acclaimed musicians in their indoor and outdoor venues. The center also exhibits large-scale outdoor sculptures by some of the world’s foremost artists and architects across its 12,500-acre of working ranchland – integrating the experience of art, music, and architecture with the natural environment.

Beginning in 2011, Arup partnered with Cathy and Peter Halstead, Tippet Rise founders, to help shape their vision for the art center. They envisioned a performance venue that doubled as an art installation and a shelter for musicians and visitors to experience the natural site.

Opened in 2024, The Geode, Tippet Rise's latest commission from Arup, is the art center’s most remote and ambitious music venue yet: featuring a cluster of four acoustical shelters set in a natural bowl overlooking the mountains. The venue hosts pop-up concerts, inviting passing visitors that are hiking or mountain biking. 

To design the Geode, Arup brought together a team of specialist designers in acoustics, structural, façade, fire and wind engineering, lighting design, venue design, and sustainability. Each discipline contributed its unique skills to shape minimally intervening structures into the landscape optimizing conditions for performers and audiences for a music season that runs from late June to early October. The innovative venue’s sound-reflecting surfaces are large and closer to the ground, allowing a more grounded sound image with longer reverberation. 

The resulting structures’ visual simplicity belies the complex geometric coordination and detailing of Arup’s multidisciplinary team. Our strategic approach met the clients’ goals of sustainability and minimal disturbance to the site while creating an artistic structure that creates a unified sound environment for musicians and audiences.

Developing a sustainable structure that meets our clients’ goals 

To conceptualize the Geode’s form, we developed a parametric model that combined structural form-finding, acoustical raytracing simulation, and dynamic shading analysis. We went through many iterations of the model to create the simple final shapes, gradually refining the parameters with input from all of the disciplines involved as well as feedback from our client. 

One of the main goals of the project was to not disturb the natural site and align with Tippet Rise’s commitment to sustainability. Arup worked with the art center to identify a location that would not require any excavation or new road construction. Our design minimally impacted the site, helping to preserve its delicate native grasses and reduced the project’s potential carbon impact that would have been significantly increased if further construction had been required. 

To additionally minimize site disturbance, we took an approach that involved sitting the structures on top of 26 individual micropiles, thin tubes inserted into the ground and filled with small volumes of cement, rather than a cement foundation that would have had a higher carbon impact.

Enhancing acoustics in nature 

To further enhance the design, we created a computer acoustic model to auralize different geometric variations and material options in the Arup SoundLab. This allowed us to refine the distance between the four shells, the thickness of the cladding, and the degree of sound scattering from the cladding inner surface to get a sense of what the acoustics would sound like. To simulate the natural conditions of the site, we even raised the temperature within the SoundLab and added background noise recordings from the art center to have an accurate assessment. 

This resulted in the final structures having an interior surface with cladding boards burned and brushed using a traditional Japanese Yakisugi technique, creating furrows in the wood that scatter sound waves at high frequencies, resulting in a more mellow sound. 

An ambitious music venue

The Geode opened in August 2024, with an inaugural performance by cellist Arlen Hlusko performing a series of dynamic and wide-ranging works presented in sets, ranging from classic Bach cello suites to new works, including two world premieres. The first is a work by Paul V. Cortez, which he wrote as part of his participation in Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program. The opening celebrations of the Geode also included a Tippet Rise commission performed by Arlen and world premiere of Àkweks Katyes (The Eagle Flies) by Grammy-nominated world music artist Dawn Avery.

Partners & collaborators

TrueNorth Steel / Gunnstock Timber Frames