Joshua Dachs is recognized as one of the world's leading theatre consultants. An architect and theatrical lighting designer, he directs FDA's consulting practice and provides planning, programming and design leadership. In over 25 years of practice he has helped plan and design hundreds of successful projects, including many world-class facilities. He actively participates in room shaping, spatial organization, and other major design issues in the early stages of virtually all of FDA's significant projects.
           As a principal consultant to Lincoln Center, Josh has been involved in the renovation of the Vivian Beaumoint Theater for the Lincoln Center Theater Company, the renovation of Alice Tully Hall, the expansion of the Juilliard School, and renovation plans for Avery Fisher Hall. He has designed the acclaimed temporary stage installation for the Mostly Mozart Festival in Avery Fisher Hall that has been used annually each August since 2005.
           Recent projects include the Toronto's new Four Seasons Center opera house, the home of the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada; Schermerhorn Symphony Center concert hall in Nashville; the New Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis; the Harmon Center, a new theater for the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington DC; and the Arsht Center, Miami's new major complex which includes an opera house and a concert hall. He continues to provide leadership to the new downtown Joyce Theatre - International Dance Center at the World Trade Center site; the Arena Stage expansion and renovation now under construction in Washington; a major new concert hall, theater, and variety theater in Moscow next to the Kremlin; and the Las Vegas Performing Arts Center; and New York's newest Broadway theater, the Henry Miller's Theater, now under construction, among others.
           Among the other projects completed under his leadership are the flexible, multi-art-form REDCAT Theatre at the Disney Hall in Los Angeles, CA; the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston, TX; the Second Stage Theatre in New York City, a new opera house in Daegu, South Korea, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, the acclaimed Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth, TX, renovations of Radio City Music Hall, the New Victory, and the Joyce Theatre in New York City.
           A graduate of the High School of Music and Art in New York who originally studied the violin, he holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University. Josh has led a team of experts teaching a professional development course on theatre design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He has been a guest critic at SCIARC and UCLA schools of architecture. He is a member of the American Society of Theatre Consultants (ASTC) and ISPA. Josh’s wife, Ako, is a stage and film actress. jdachs@fda-online.com