The New England Conservatory located in Boston, MA, honored its 150th anniversary in 2017 with the opening of the Student Life and Performance Center, a building that needed to provide practice spaces, performance facilities, and student housing all under one roof. It was important that this new building – the first for the Conservatory in 60 years – have a unique identity and express architectural creativity and innovation.
The Student Life and Performance Center holds more than 250 residential units, in addition to orchestra and jazz rehearsal rooms, a black box opera workshop, the New England Conservatory library, 250 student rooms, a dining commons, and spaces for collaboration and gathering. The building’s façade was designed to convey the Conservatory’s commitment to both contemporary thought and tradition. This was achieved with a terra cotta rainscreen, staggered windows, and a 40-foot tall perforated metal screen, which acts as a curtain, allowing for glimpses of the performance spaces and the activity within.
The design team — a collaborative effort between Ann Beha and Gensler — specified CENTRIA’s EcoScreen® perforated metal panels to help distinguish the curved form of the exterior performance screen feature from the rest of the building. Visually, it adds a shimmering, veil-like element to the structure. These panels are constructed through a unique fabrication process that utilizes 20 gauge stainless steel and 0.040" painted aluminum. The result is a 10%-40% open area that provides an airy aesthetic and controls light and air movement, while elegantly blending industrial and other applications with their surroundings.
In this application, EcoScreen enables the performance screen to also be functional, as it helps diffuse street noise coming into the structure, and allows southern-facing light to filter into the orchestra rehearsal space. At the penthouse level, additional EcoScreen panels were used to conceal some of the building’s mechanical equipment.
CENTRIA Versawall® insulated, lightweight metal panels also clad the building where it faces an inner alley creating long, sleek lines and providing superior thermal and moisture protection against the elements.
The Student Life and Performance Center is in the process of finalizing its LEED Silver® certification. This project marked the fourth team effort between Ann Beha Architects and Gensler. The general contractor was AECOM Tishman, and the installer was Sunrise Erectors.
Related Stories
| Nov 3, 2011
GREC Architects announces opening of the Westin Abu Dhabi Golf Resort and Spa
The hotel was designed by GREC and an international team of consultants to enhance the offerings of the Abu Dhabi Golf Club without imposing upon the dramatic landscapes of the elite golf course.
| Nov 1, 2011
Holcim awards winners for North America announced
A socio-architectural project to create regional food-gathering nodes and a logistics network in Canada's high arctic territory won the top prize for North America of $100,000.
| Oct 25, 2011
Universal teams up with Earthbound Corp. to provide streamlined commercial framing solutions
The primary market for the Intact Structural Frame is light commercial buildings that are typically designed with concrete masonry walls, steel joists and steel decks.
| Oct 25, 2011
Commitment to green building practices pays off
The study, conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, built on a good indication of the potential for increased productivity and performance pilot research completed two years ago, with similarly impressive results.
| Oct 20, 2011
Process leads to new design values for southern pine and other visually graded dimension lumber
A summary of the process used to develop new design values will clarify many of the questions received by the SFPA.
| Oct 19, 2011
System for installing grease duct enclosures achieves UL listing
Updated installation results in 33% space savings.
| Oct 18, 2011
Michel Bruneau wins 2012 AISC T.R. Higgins Award
The AISC T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award is presented annually by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and recognizes an outstanding lecturer and author whose technical paper(s) are considered an outstanding contribution to the engineering literature on fabricated structural steel.
| Oct 18, 2011
Dow Building Solutions invests in two research facilities to deliver data to building and construction industry
State-of-the-art monitoring system allows researchers to collect, analyze and process the performance of wall systems.
| Oct 18, 2011
St. Martin’s Episcopal School expands facilities
Evergreen commences construction on environmentally sustainable campus expansion.
| Oct 17, 2011
Big D Floor covering supplies to offer Johnsonite Products??
Strategic partnership expands offering to south and west coast customers.
