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Architects: HGA
- Area: 11878 ft²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Albert Vecerka/ Esto
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Manufacturers: Andreu World, Designtex, mmcite, Arper, ETHNICRAFT, Sherwin-Williams, Bernhardt, Blu Dot, Ceramic Tileworks, Corian, Daltile, Davis, FilzFelt, Formica, Hightower, Kvadrat, Luum Textiles, Marvin, Marvin Doors, Mats Inc., +14
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Lead Architect: Joan Soranno
Text description provided by the architects. Since 1951, generations of the world’s highly renowned musical masters have come together with exceptional young musicians to participate in Marlboro Music, a seven-week festival tucked among Vermont’s Green Mountains at Marlboro College. Musicians learn not through lectures or traditional classwork, but by playing together daily in intensive, intimate rehearsals.
The college’s idyllic campus is comprised of retrofitted farm buildings that are exemplars of 400-year-old Cape Cod vernacular. Over the last seventy years, these aging farm buildings have become less-than-ideal environments for chamber music. Driven to meet the needs of 21st-century musicians, the new Reich Rehearsal Hall's design remains true to Marlboro's spirit while providing modern performance space, staff offices, a state-of-the-art music library archive, and gathering spaces.
A series of 3 rehearsal rooms and the archive library is connected with gathering spaces and are orchestrated around a central courtyard - composing an experience of compression and release. The humble ceiling heights of the lobby spaces allow the full volumes of the rehearsal rooms to soar. Each interior space was designed with dual use in mind: supporting rehearsals in the summer, and classes, lectures, and meetings during the school year.
The palette gently pulls the Vermont landscape indoors, with textures and colors inspired by its flora and fauna; carefully placed windows further this harmonious connection with the surrounding landscape – celebrating the intrinsic relationship between music and nature. With a goal to tread lightly on the land, the building’s mass is balanced between two levels of a steeply sloped site, resulting in fully accessible entrances and grounds on both floors.
Reich Hall relies on various sustainability strategies to continue Marlboro’s environmental stewardship, resulting in sustainable buildings starting with their initial design to the intended longevity. Despite the exceedingly low-tech appearance of the new building, behind the scenes is a sophisticated strategy that includes LED lighting, a passive solar gains strategy, a green roof that can be enjoyed as an outdoor terrace for events, and operable windows providing natural light, ventilation, and thermal control.
An energy-efficient geothermal well field serves water-to-water heat pumps located in the adjacent Residence Hall and shared with Reich Hall. These units provide both chilled and hot water simultaneously as required by the radiant floor and fan coil systems. Water use for primary heating and cooling greatly increases the performance capacity, reducing the transportation energy required. Marlboro Music’s singular process has led to music-making infused with uncommon joy and renewed spirit. The new Reich Rehearsal Hall ensures that art has a home in which to thrive for generations to come.
