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Specialties: Education

Cleveland State University

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The program was the consolidation of the university's music and communication departments in one structure. The building would need to house dozens of classrooms, faculty offices, and practice rooms, in addition to two performance halls, rehearsal rooms, and a television studio.  With the exception of the performance halls, the program was organized into a four-story prism  placed parallel to an existing parking structure. This block forms a datum for the massing of recital halls, vertical circulation, and the entrance, which are oriented towards Euclid Avenue, the major thoroughfare.

The 918-seat auditorium is a traditional shoebox shape designed on the lines of the Vienna  Musikvereinsal and the Boston Symphony Hall. The roof is supported by rows of very slender steel columns. 

Warmth and ambiance are given by the light wood walls. The organ is the visual focus. To the east, two massive pyramids mark the locations of the orchestra and jazz practice rooms (the larger and smaller pyramid, respectively).

The two-story, 303-seat chamber music/recital hall is a steeply raked, intimate space designed primarily for smaller ensembles and soloists. The choral rehearsal room has high, exposed ceilings, diffuse wall surfaces, and a sufficiently variable absorption to allow conductors to match the sound power of their performers to the room. The small practice rooms are designed as self-contained, "floating" constructions, so as to absorb noise and vibration.

The two-story television studio is a self-contained, state-of-the-art teaching facility incorporating a darkroom, graphics lab, four audio labs, four video editing rooms, television control room, and a ring of upper story observation rooms. A two-story bridge connects the plaza level of the campus to the lobby and lower levels of the new building. The lower story continues to a covered canopy, giving additional access to the lobby and the existing parking structure. A series of handicapped-accessible ramps lead from Euclid Avenue to the bridge and central campus.

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Location:  Cleveland, Ohio
Firms Responsibility:  Architecture: 100%
Area:  140,000 sq. ft.
Construction Cost:  $17,500,000


 
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