Herschel Atrium Extension

This project is an extension to an existing building and falls within an existing campus architectural identity. Its success is in how seamlessly the new construction integrates with the existing on multiple levels, layers, and scales. Circulation to and through the new amenity is a fluid experience. A courtyard is carved out as an articulated void space of composed proportion that seamlessly merges old with new.
The project is heightened through its layering of space that intensifies through the narrative experience of the building. The courtyard enhances and relates to the atrium. The ground floor lowers to define the choir practice room foyer that act as an informal performance space of double volume height with an evocative saw tooth roof and northeast clerestory light. The gathering space and circulation arms on first floor further hold and interact with the lower ground floor atrium space. The choir practice room, with its clerestory windows, submerges to hold the music and the ceiling is lifted above ground to allow light and lightness to reverberate.
The music school is a complex building in terms of its programmatic, sound barrier and acoustic requirements. These complexities are handled with grace and finesse.
The architectural articulation has a quality of seeming effortless. Through a multitude of careful and thoughtful decisions the architects have created a fluent space of lightness and restrained calm that allows the users a place of expression and for the music to sing.