Boora Architects

Through a close partnership with faculty, staff, and the university planning department, the renovation and expansion to the University of Oregon School of Music + Dance will create unity and clarity in a hodgepodge complex of facilities from different eras, collected together on the same site but otherwise internally disjointed.  Before beginning design, Boora and the school completed a programming, planning, and concept design study that found that school’s existing spaces suffered from a lack of acoustical isolation, causing sound interference between rooms; an acute shortage of teaching, practice, and rehearsal space; and unmet demand for additional small performance venues.

At the conclusion of the study, the team proposed a cost-effective mix of new construction and renovation of existing spaces. The first phase of improvements aligns two additions on the east edge of the complex, enclosing an existing courtyard and creating a dedicated outdoor environment for the school. A student hearth inside the more southern addition provides casual gathering space inside the building.

A large instrument rehearsal hall can easily be transformed using variable acoustic treatments into a jazz cabaret, a banquet venue, or 250-seat recital hall. A large window on its north façade and a continuous clerestory above offer views of the Southwest Campus Green and introduce diffuse daylight. The windows also allow internal activity to be broadcast to the campus.

Adjacent to the rehearsal hall is a master recording studio. Video and audio from jazz, choral, percussion and music education classrooms throughout the building are fed into the studio for mixing and final production.

A three story addition along the School’s southeastern edge contains classrooms, practice rooms and faculty studios. The ground floor is oriented north/south and encloses the courtyard, creating a large outdoor common space for the school. The second and third floors – rotated 90 degrees from the lower floor in order to minimize western exposure - house faculty studios and lounge space. Bay windows and built-in seating at each end of the building provide casual places for students to gather or wait for practice sessions with faculty. A small terrace looks over the courtyard from the third level.