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 addition provides casual gathering space inside the building.

The instrument rehearsal room can easily be transformed using variable acoustic treatments into a jazz cabaret, a banquet venue, or 250-seat recital hall.