School of MuSic and the lyrical Wall

aia hampton roads 2009 design awardsd23: unbuilt

Challenging economic drivers inspired designers of a new School of Music at a Florida university to investigate some-what unorthodox construction strategies and to design a dramatic yet simple defining element—the lyrical wall—that uses shadow and materiality to create interest and express rhythm and pattern.

The $36 million facility, which will open in fall 2010, houses choral, orchestral and jazz halls, classrooms, faculty studios, student practice rooms in 103,000 square feet. It includes a 500-seat concert hall and a 100-seat student recital hall. A 1,200-seat performance hall is planned for a second phase.

It is a long-anticipated project, having been on the University’s capital improvement plan for more than 10 years.

This new facility will anchor a campus edge previously defined by asphalt parking lots. It will connect to the University’s academic core and its existing arts quadrant, and heighten awareness of the music school with the local community.

Several themes drove design solutions:

• The site inherently has public and academic faces. Capturing and directing the pedestrian traffic, which naturally tra-verses the eastern edge of the site, creates the potential for achieving broad engagement and a public presence.

• The climate is typically hot and humid, making shaded exterior spaces and pathways essential. The notion of an open-air public concourse emerged as a device to provide a public/patron/academic interface.

• Envisioning more than just a covered walkway, designers decided to give the path a backdrop. This backdrop to the 400-foot concourse evolved into a defining feature, named the “lyrical wall,” connecting the academic core to the public access point, while serving as the threshold of the building.

The “lyrical wall,” with its playful distribution of light and shadow, sponsors the expression of related “sound generating spaces.” It becomes a visual expression of rhythm and pattern without being literal. It reinforces the building’s purpose—music—and becomes its public identity.

Staccato, solid and void. The wall creates a threshold as concert-goers or students move from one space to another along the path. Parts of the wall have the building behind it; in another place the wall opens to a student courtyard, in still other spaces the wall opens to a green amphitheater and smaller, more intimate eddies. The wall soars to 55 feet in height in some places, and diminishes to bench height in others.

This simple construct helped answer another design challenge. The client initially wanted a brick and block facility. High costs caused designers to explore the limits of “tilt-up” concrete as an alternative. The resulting performance spaces are composed of a combination of pre-cast concrete veneer and site-cast tilt-up structural concrete.

This solution then allowed designers to mimic the “consistently inconsistent” patterning of the wall on the academic face of the building, where rehearsal and classroom spaces are housed. By placing windows at different heights and using materials to achieve a bas relief expression, light and shadow create a rhyth-mic pattern that works day and night. It transforms what would otherwise be plain boxes into memorable experiences for all.

The lyrical wall becomes the identity of the School of Music. It orders the site, and serves as the conduit between inside and out, between public and private.

C l I n I C A l

PA r k I n g

PA r k I n g

M E d I C A l

A r T S

ST U d E n T l I F E

SITE

Campus Sectors

A r T SA r T S E x PA n S I o n A C A d E M I C C o r E

The new School of Music facility anchors a campus edge previously

defined by asphalt parking lots. It connects the University’s

academic core, its existing arts quadrant and the community.

Campus Adjacencies

0 64’ 128’ 196’

PROGRAM

Concept Sketch

ACAdEMIC

SEr vICE

Site Zoning

level Two: Clasrooms, labs, and practice rooms

level Three: Faculty studios and offices level one

a Concourse

b Atruium

c lobby

d Concert Hall

e Amphitheater

f Jazz rehearsal

g Instrumental rehearsal

h Choral rehearsal

i Student recital Hall

j Administration

k Student Courtyard

The 103,000-square-foot facility includes a 500-seat concert hall, a 100-seat student recital hall as well as classrooms, student practice rooms and faculty studios. A 1,200-seat performance hall is planned for a second phase.

a

a

a

c

b

j

ihg

f

d

e

k

PUBlIC

0 32’ 64’ 96’

0 32’ 64’ 96’

PUBLIC FACE

Public Face Phase I Public Face Phase II

Shaded walkways are essential in the facility’s hot, humid climate. Yet, designers envisioned more. By giving the path a backdrop, the concourse evolved into a defining feature called the “lyrical wall,” connecting the academic core to the public street, while serving as the threshold of the building. The lyrical wall becomes the identity of the School of Music. It orders the site, and serves as the conduit between inside and out, between public and private.

CONCOURSE PATH

Concourse Path Phase I Concourse Path Phase II

Capturing and directing the pedestrian traffic, which naturally

traverses the eastern edge of the site, creates the potential for achieving

broad engagement and a public presence for the School of Music.

LYRICAL WALL

defining Presence

The wall becomes a visual expression of rhythm and pattern without being literal. It reinforces the building’s purpose—music—and becomes its public identity. It soars to 55 feet in height in some places, and diminishes to bench height in others.

The client initially wanted a brick and block facility. High costs caused designers to explore the limits of “tilt-up” concrete as an alternative. The resulting performance spaces are composed of a combination of pre-cast concrete veneer and site-cast tilt-up structural concrete. The wall is primarily pre-cast veneer.

datum of Activity

1 Amphitheater

2 Concert Hall lobby

3 Auto drop-off

4 Student Courtyard

5 Atrium

6 Entry Plaza

12

3

4

5

6

PLACES ALONG THE WALL

Concourse Connections

The wall creates a threshold as concert-goers or students move from one space to another along the path. Parts of the wall have the building behind it; in another place the wall opens to a student courtyard, in still other spaces the wall opens to a green amphitheater and smaller, more intimate eddies.

ACADEMIC FACETransforming the Expression

Academic Face visual Association

Designers mimicked the lyrical wall’s “consistently inconsistent” patterning on the academic face of the building,

where rehearsal and classroom spaces are housed. By placing windows at

different heights and using materials to achieve a bas relief expression, light and

shadow create a rhythmic pattern that works day and night. It transforms what

would otherwise be plain boxes into memorable experiences for all. With its playful distribution of light and shadow,

the lyrical wall sponsors the expression of related “sound generating spaces.”

related “sound generating spaces”