Pennsylvania State University
Recital Hall

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Project

Recital Hall

Client

Pennsylvania State University

Location

University Park, PA

Completion

2018

Size

24,500 GSF

Certification

LEED Certified

Category

Renovations + Additions, The Arts

Partner Firm

Botswick Design Partnership

The Recital Hall addition to the School of Music is the first building as part of Penn State's Arts Master Plan, which envisions a future quad connecting Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, and Architecture. The building opens the School of Music to the campus and the College of Arts and Architecture buildings that surround the site through a new lobby and forty-foot tall double-skin curtainwall that acoustically isolates the Recital Hall from bus traffic along nearby Curtin Road. A new terraced outdoor space connects the front door of the School with the front of the adjacent Theater Building and provides a place for students and faculty of each department to interact.

On the interior, the shape of the hall invites interaction between the audience and student performers. The first vineyard-style recital hall at this scale, the room is organized with audience seating circling the stage on four sides, maximizing intimacy (no seat in this 410-seat hall is more than 8 rows from the stage). Seating around and behind the stage is decidedly low, providing students in the audience with a perspective of a performer and allowing them to continue to learn what it feels like to be onstage even as they are watching their peer musicians.

One important core value relates to the importance of collaboration. … collaboration between outstanding scholar/artist teachers and students in the exploration of great music is fundamental to the core strengths of the School of Music.

College of Arts and Architecture Masterplan

Awards + Recognition

2022 National AIA Interior Architecture Honor Award

2021 USITT Architecture Honor Award

2020 BSA Design Excellence Citation

2019 AIA New England Design Merit Award

2019 Borough of State College Ingrid P. Holtzman Award

2019 IES Philadelphia Section Illumination Merit Award

Project Consultants

Structural Engineer | LeMessurier Consultants, Inc.

Mechanical / Electrical Engineer | Barton Associates

Civil Engineer | Stahl Sheaffer Engineering

Theater Consultant | NextStage Design

Acoustical Engineer | Talaske

AV Consultant | Talaske

Photographer | Robert Benson

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