Wheaton College
Conservatory of Music

Location
Wheaton, Illinois

Owner
Wheaton College

Team
Acoustics and AV - Threshold
Architect - HGA Architects and Engineers
Architect of Record - FGM Architects
Theatre Consultant - Theatre Project Consultants
Engineers - IMEG

Size
90,600 square feet new construction
100-seat Recital Hall
650-seat Concert Hall

Schedule
Phase I Renovation, Completed 2017
Phase II New Construction, Completed 2020

Wheaton College has long cultivated young musicians in a tight-knit community outside of Chicago. The program grew so much in recent decades, however, that the Conservatory burst at the seams, needing expanded space for faculty and students.

Phase 1 of the Renovation transformed a science building into a new home for the Conservatory on the central campus quad. The existing Armerding Hall was gutted and refitted to serve the everyday needs of the Conservatory's faculty and students. Teaching studios and practice rooms were retrofit into the existing superstructure, and an existing lecture hall gained a story of additional height, becoming a new 100-seat recital hall with concerts expected 200 days a year. As this space moved through the design process, we modeled it alongside two campus venues well known to the faculty. Several of the faculty gamely (and expertly) allowed us to record them in an anechoic chamber. When played back as sources in the auralizations, they heard themselves perform in renditions of the existing spaces as well as the unbuilt recital hall, a moving experience for everyone involved.

Phase 2 of the project is a new 90,600-sf facility features a start-of-the-art 650-seat auditorium and 100-seat recital hall that will host a wide range of events. The new home for the Conservatory includes classrooms, practice rooms, rehearsal spaces and faculty studios. See a first glimpse of the completed project.

Acoustic isolation strategies applied to the original superstructure allow for practice and instruction sessions throughout the building without distractions and give students and faculty places to work that convey a sense of value in the Conservatory's everyday activity, not just in the final performances. AV systems further support advanced instruction and recording capabilities.

The completed Armerding Center for Music and the Arts invites musical participation and artistic engagement of all students, staff, and faculty, allowing the College to host a greater number of campus guests, and allowing the College to achieve higher levels of artistic excellence.