San Francisco Conservatory of Music, with Perkins+Will; also Forell/Elsesser Engineers; Flack + Kurtz; Kirkegaard Associates

photo by Tim Griffith

    
photos by Tim Griffith

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The San Francisco Conservatory of Music had outgrown its facility located in a remote residential neighborhood, which was inaccessible by public transportation. This project developed a design for the conservatory in the civic center, San Francisco’s cultural heart and home to the symphony, opera and ballet. The conservatory now accommodates three performance spaces, a library, administrative offices, classrooms, teaching studios and practice spaces.

One goal was to integrate program uses to create a building supporting and encouraging community interaction. Site advantages included civic center location, compelling identity, and suitability of the historic ballroom to become the audience chamber for the new concert hall. The school purchased an historical building, originally designed as a recreational facility, and the adjacent nondescript building, with no historic rating that could be demolished and replaced.

“In the arts, symbolism is powerfully, wordlessly expressive. Our new location speaks volumes to our students, their parents, our peer institutions and to our audiences in the broadest sense,” says Dean Mary Ellen Poole.

The new concert hall bridges the two buildings. The historic ballroom is reconfigured to hold the audience chamber and a state-of-the-art stage in the new structure.

Implementation challenges were: heavy acoustical construction, tight urban site, performance spaces on different levels, a three-story atrium; seismic strengthening of historic façade, out-of-sequence construction scheduling, and installation of large transfer trusses.

Located a block from an active fire station, the building’s sensitive acoustics required triple glazing, while maintaining the structure’s historic windows.

The jury said, “ . . . atrium is a great space . . . auditorium is gorgeous . . . took a ballroom and made it a world class acoustical room . . . very clever project . . . ”

Project Team: San Francisco Conservatory of Music, with Perkins+Will; also Forell/Elsesser Engineers; Flack + Kurtz; Kirkegaard Associates