ACADEMY OF MUSIC
MORRISTOWN, NJ
Bachelor of Architecture Thesis [June 2020]
Project Duration: 30 Weeks
Thesis Advisor: Joanne Aitken, FAIA
2020 Michael Pearson Prize Finalist
The Academy of Music is a place to Learn, Create, & Perform - a regional acoustic destination where music education, creativity, and the performing arts bring unity to a community. A year-long thesis endeavor, this project is a filter for sound - creating an increased awareness of the sonic environment. In result, its architecture elevates Music Education from supplement importance to primary.
An acoustically-charged public park meets the streetscape on this 4-acre urban site in Morristown, NJ, where interstitial space creates moments for the unique and distinct sonic perception of its urban fabric. Hardscape materials & vegetation, along with acoustic interventions placed throughout the landscape, reflect and filter the sound of a busy vehicular thoroughfare. The site geometry and building organization enliven & expand a busy pedestrian realm, while unwanted noise such as building services and vehicular parking are moved below grade. Among the landscape architecture program is found an amphitheater, ‘whispering waterfalls’, ‘melodic marimbas’, ‘echo underpasses’, a ‘cricket retreat’, a ‘clamorous campfire’, and horn-shaped sound-enhancing slides, to name a few.
A civic institution, the facility’s architecture is composed of three buildings, all of which are open to local creative professionals (and those aspiring) - to Learn, Create, & Perform in a unique setting. Each standalone building contains its respective pieces of this tripartite program. Classrooms and lab spaces anchor the Academy’s more traditional Learn components, while recording studios, ensemble rehearsal rooms, instrument lesson rooms, sonic research spaces, and audio-visual integration suites are among the more inventive and improvisational pieces of the Create program. Three acoustically-distinct performing arts theaters are held within the Perform building, where an instrument retail shop and street-facing public cafe accommodate the pedestrian realm and retain civic engagement.
On the building exterior, three distinct materials highlight the programmatic use of space on the interior: corten steel panels that articulate acoustically-distinct interior volumes; LED-backlit frosted channel glass that wraps semi-private spaces like a theater curtain, and transparent vision glass that directs specific views to the exterior from interior public space.
