Completed as part of the St. Stephen’s Episcopal School master plan, the Helm Fine Arts Center contains a 400-seat theater, exhibit space, rehearsal spaces, classrooms, offices, and painting and ceramic studios. Because of its program requirements, the Fine Arts Center is by far the largest building on the campus. In order not to compete visually with an adjacent chapel, the auditorium is built into a hillside to mitigate its apparent size.  Low porches, which surround the 60-foot-tall box of the auditorium, also bring down the scale. The porches are emphasized with thick walls and simple, natural materials, including native limestone.