Collaboration is fundamental to the mission of the Old Town School of Folk Music. Founded in 1957, the thriving Chicago nonprofit offers multicultural music, dance, theater, and visual arts courses and concerts, with users running the gamut from “Wiggleworm” tots to senior citizens. The school serves about 6,000 students a week, and performances attract 85,000 people annually. Pros often jam with rank beginners, reflecting a spirit of teamwork inspired by the institution’s folk roots.
Despite continuing success, OTS has always operated in reused buildings. Its current facilities include a 19th century banquet hall (renovated in the 1980s) and a 1930s library repurposed as the school’s headquarters in the late 1990s. When the school decided to squeeze its first purpose-built facility into a tight site across the street from its HQ, the Building Team’s collaborative skills proved a good match for the OTS vibe.
The new 28,000-sf East Building includes small spaces for music instruction and practice, a multipurpose hall for performances and parties, three skylit dance studios, and a public “front porch” entry hall. Because room-to-room sound leakage was a longstanding headache, excellent acoustics were a priority.
The open staircase, with stylized portraits of music legends, is the primary feature of the entrance lobby, or “front porch.” The multi-story “feature wall” creates acoustical separation between public areas and the music and dance classrooms, but interior windows maintain a sense of connection and distribute natural light. Soft seating invites informal jam sessions, and the terrazzo floor is studded with recycled beer bottles—a wry nod to the historic connection between music and libations.
The site, on a busy commercial avenue, posed significant issues that became more evident upon further investigation. The water table was high, and any excavation deeper than 11 feet would require tedious permitting through the city’s Office of Underground Construction. The proposed building height, though not unprecedented in the neighborhood, would violate recent zoning language created to prevent development of tall condo buildings.
These factors derailed initial plans to create a four-story facility with a basement. OTS and its architect, VOA Associates, deleted executive offices and storage from the program, resulting in a three-story, no-basement building plus a rooftop mechanical zone. (A return to earlier zoning language was negotiated to address the height restriction, and some of desired building functions were accommodated in a small storefront next to main OTS building.)
Bill Ketcham, AIA, LEED AP, Principal at VOA, says, “We didn’t lose anything that was mission-critical. Through a legitimate budgeting process we managed to maintain quality; I don’t think we were hurt very badly on the value enhancement.”
In addition to owner’s rep The AT Group, acoustical specialist Talaske was an early player. “We knew we needed a highly qualified acoustical consultant from day one, so we didn’t screw that up,” says Ketcham.
Seen from inside a music practice room, the feature wall consists of an inner layer that incorporates fire-rated glazing and fabric-covered acoustical panels, and an outer layer on the public circulation side, which includes glass-fiber-reinforced gypsum frames surrounding the windows. The walls are isolated from each other down to the foundation.
Bulley & Andrews was also hired early, in part because the construction manager had submitted a detailed analysis of how the project could be staged without snarling traffic. “This was quite compelling to us,” says Ketcham. “The building takes up the entire lot, and there’s no parking, so the plan was to frame out the front bay last to allow for staging within the building. Old Town does have a parking lot a couple doors down, and they worked out a plan to use that lot for staging, with the alley available for moving people and materials. Major deliveries were brought in the front during off hours. Lincoln Avenue is pretty congested, but most of the retailers there also do street loading. There was very good coordination with the alderman’s office and the local merchants.”
OTS Executive Director Bau Graves says, “We did community meetings prior to the start, and Bulley & Andrews’ superintendent on the site continually talked with everybody about everything going on. We also offered biweekly tours, and I know most of our neighbors went through at least once, and several more than once, during the construction.”
Notable features of the project include:
• Energy conservation. Operating costs were top-of-mind for OTS, in light of experiences with its headquarters project. The former library, considered sustainable at the time of its renovation with electric heat, had proved costly to operate once the local utility’s promotional rate lock expired. OTS selected natural gas and high-efficiency HVAC for the new LEED Gold building.
• Acoustical design. Robust steel framing and sophisticated isolation technology offer sound control. A full-height “feature wall,” punctuated with recessed slot windows, visually and acoustically separates the music and dance areas from the public lobby.
• Flexible space. Bleachers in Szold Hall, a 2,100-sf room on the second floor, can support 150 seats for concerts but fold back to open the column-free space for dance classes and receptions.
• Contextual design. The front façade echoes the Art Deco library with vertical windows and orange brick. Decorative precast concrete panels feature the word “music” in ancient and modern languages, recalling the library’s decorative terra cotta plaques. Side facades are primarily gray-painted steel: a plain, money-saving treatment that helps downplay the bulk of the building when viewed from the north or south.
Eighteen months after completion, Graves has nothing but praise for those who made the project a reality. “The Bulley & Andrews team, the VOA team, the owner’s rep, all the main players worked through a lot of issues that any job of this scale will represent, and did it with a great deal of tact and forbearance. People told me we’d never want to see our architect again after this kind of job, but we all ended up being good friends.”
Project summary
SILVER AWARD
Old Town School of Folk Music, East Building
Chicago
BUILDING TEAM
Submitting firm: VOA Associates (architect)
Owner: Old Town School of Folk Music
Owner’s rep: The AT Group
Structural: Matrix Engineering
MEP: Primera Engineers Ltd.
Civil: Gary A. Wiss
Acoustical: Talaske
CM: Bulley & Andrews LLC
GENERAL INFORMATION
Project size: 28,070 sf
Construction cost: $13 million
Construction time: Summer 2010 to fall 2012
Delivery method: CM at risk
Related Stories
Affordable Housing | Aug 7, 2024
The future of affordable housing may be modular, AI-driven, and made of mushrooms
Demolished in 1989, The Phoenix Ironworks Steel Factory left a five-acre hole in West Oakland, Calif. After sitting vacant for nearly three decades, the site will soon become utilized again in the form of 316 affordable housing units.
Architects | Aug 5, 2024
Mastering the art of project schedule: Expert insights on design and construction
We sat down with two experts in the design field, Ron Dick (Founding Partner and Architect) and Mike Niezer (COO and Architect), to talk about everything you need to know about the entire process.
University Buildings | Aug 1, 2024
UC Riverside’s student health center provides an environment on par with major medical centers
The University of California, Riverside's new Student Health and Counseling Center (SHCC) provides a holistic approach to wellness for students throughout the UC Riverside campus. Designed by HGA and delivered through a design-build partnership with Turner Construction Company, SHCC provides healthcare offerings in an environment on par with major medical centers.
Libraries | Aug 1, 2024
How current and future trends are shaping the libraries of tomorrow
Over the last few years, public libraries have transitioned from being buildings that only store and lend books to being fully featured community centers.
MFPRO+ News | Aug 1, 2024
Canada tries massive incentive program to spur new multifamily housing construction
Canada has taken the unprecedented step of offering billions in infrastructure funds to communities in return for eliminating single-family housing zoning.
Government Buildings | Aug 1, 2024
One of the country’s first all-electric fire stations will use no outside energy sources
Charlotte, N.C.’s new Fire Station #30 will be one of the country’s first all-electric fire stations, using no outside energy sources other than diesel fuel for one or two of the fire trucks. Multiple energy sources will power the station, including solar roof panels and geothermal wells. The two-story building features three truck bays, two fire poles, dispatch area, contamination room, and gear storage.
Contractors | Aug 1, 2024
Nonresidential construction spending decreased 0.2% in June
National nonresidential construction spending declined 0.2% in June, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data published today by the U.S. Census Bureau. On a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, nonresidential spending totaled $1.21 trillion. Nonresidential construction has expanded 5.3% from a year ago.
Student Housing | Jul 31, 2024
The University of Michigan addresses a decades-long student housing shortage with a new housing-dining facility
The University of Michigan has faced a decades-long shortage of on-campus student housing. In a couple of years, the situation should significantly improve with the addition of a new residential community on Central Campus in Ann Arbor, Mich. The University of Michigan has engaged American Campus Communities in a public-private partnership to lead the development of the environmentally sustainable living-learning student community.
MFPRO+ New Projects | Jul 31, 2024
Shipping containers converted into attractive, affordable multifamily housing in L.A.
In the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles, a new affordable multifamily housing project using shipping containers resulted in 24 micro-units for formerly unhoused residents. The containers were acquired from a nearby port and converted into housing units at a factory.
Adaptive Reuse | Jul 30, 2024
Empty mall to be converted to UCLA Research Park
UCLA recently acquired a former mall that it will convert into the UCLA Research Park that will house the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy at UCLA and the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, as well as programs across other disciplines. The 700,000-sf property, formerly the Westside Pavilion shopping mall, is two miles from the university’s main Westwood campus. Google, which previously leased part of the property, helped enable and support UCLA’s acquisition.