The Music Building, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, United States

December 21, 2010 Category: Education, Public Buildings

The Music Building, University of Pennsylvania that located in Philadelphia, United States, was designed by Ann Beha Architects. Equivalent in size to the existing building, the addition has been designed to respond to the materiality, rhythm and proportions of the historic façades by introducing an articulated terracotta rain-screen system, generous expanses of glass, horizontal sun shades, and a metal cornice corresponding to the broad roof overhang. Internally, the open circulation on each level frames the restored historic east façade, and the building offers social spaces which view the newly created Music terrace and campus beyond. The addition, with its cast-in-place concrete super structure, accommodates the Music Department’s most acoustically sensitive spaces, including practice rooms, recording studios, classrooms, and faculty offices.

Ann Beha Architects’ intention, from the outset of design, was to create a single building that establishes a dialogue between old and new, and displays the activity of music-making to the greater University community. The site design creates a new campus walkway with an outdoor terrace connecting the Engineering Green to the University’s busy 34th Street. This terrace and new adjacent Campus Green extend the University’s landscape tradition, linking to the historic pedestrian core of the campus and providing communal green space shared by the University.

The Music Building, University of Pennsylvania design by Ann Beha Architects