School Renovations Reviewed, Planned
Several Academy buildings underwent renovations during the 2014-15 school year and more are set to be restored in the upcoming months, including an annex to the Forrestal-Bowld Music Center and a brand new performing arts center.
“[The music department] hopes that in addition to being a wonderful place to teach classes, it will make a statement about the seriousness of music as both an intellectual and artistic pursuit.”
The new Library Commons was finalized during the spring break of 2015 and opened Mar. 24 for student and faculty use. Decorated with neat red and yellow carpeting and brown couches, the new lounge area allows students to study, socialize, and relax. The room also includes a small café, which offers snacks and coffee. The Commons also provides a classroom, adorned with a 60-inch LCD monitor and a Harkness table, for classes that need a space to meet when using the library. The Commons will serve as a convenient place for student events due to the movable furniture and movie screen, which is to be installed soon, according to Academy Librarian Gail Scanlon.
Upper Hannah Cherenfant, who attended a reception held for the opening of the facility, said the room will aptly accommodate students who want to socialize in the library, saying “the new layout makes it seem a lot like a lounge or a classier, more study-oriented Agora.” Other students agreed with Cherenfant, adding that the revamped ground floor will attract more students to the library. Some, however, such as lower Alejandro Arango, disagree. Arango believes that the Commons may become overcrowded, and thus thwart a constructive academic atmosphere. “Some people I’ve talked to are concerned the Library Commons will become like an extension of the Grill, which is loud and hard to get work done in,” he said. “Socializing, I’m sure, won’t be an issue.”
Despite this concern, both students and faculty agree that the library has taken a step forward, with the more modern and open concept design. Along with making the space more modern, the renovation worked to put in new woodwork and less costly, more environmentally friendly lighting fixtures which served as a model for the rest of building. Scanlon said that these renovations were a starting point for the library to “test drive” what could be done to the rest of the building. Similar to the library renovations, the music building is also undergoing large-scale improvements that look to affect the music program for years to come.
In May of 2015, the construction to the music building began and if all goes according to plan, it will be finished for the fall of 2016. The upgraded building will contain a performance/rehearsal space, which will be able to seat around 250-300 people. Additionally, the upgrades include a new technology center, which will be an extension of the current music library, a classroom with a Harkness table, a musicianship studio and several other large rehearsal studios. According to Peter Schultz, chair of the music department, this renovation will go a long way in “alleviating the space crunch [the music building is] currently experiencing.”
Not only do faculty recognize the tight space in the music building, but students have also experienced that many groups or clubs performing, rehearsing and meeting in the building have a tough time with room management. “I remember multiple instances where a group wouldn’t have a large enough place to practice and were all crammed into an extremely small room, which is certainly not ideal,” lower Matthew Hambacher said. “For clubs that meet in the Harkness room (mainly Chess Club), that will also be useful.” Whether it’s the Concert Band or the Symphony Orchestra, each concert or rehearsal in the church becomes a tight fit. Phillips Church, which is not meant to be a performance space, has been overcrowded by both performers and audiences for the past several years. “We hope that our new addition will enable us to do the vast majority of our performances [in the music building], rather than in the church,” Schultz said. In addition to the space for performances, the new concert halls will allow competitive music students to record in better acoustics. “I think the new performance halls will have the biggest impact on me,” lower Roger Shen said. “It'll be a lot better for making video recordings to send to competitions and eventually college applications.”
Along with the new performing and rehearsing spaces, the music building will for the first time ever have a Harkness classroom. “[The music department] hopes that in addition to being a wonderful place to teach classes, it will make a statement about the seriousness of music as both an intellectual and artistic pursuit,” Schultz said. The theater department will also be getting a makeover, but unlike the music building, it will be building a brand new theater on Court Street.
The theater department has and is currently working with architects to design a new theater stationed on Court Street in place of the the tennis courts. A date is yet to be set for when the building will be out of the “design phase,” according to theater instructor Robert Richards. Richards has been working with architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien to create the most “effective, practical and inspiring,” facility that will benefit the theater and dance departments. The renovation could still be in the design phase well into summer, Richards said. The renovation will begin to “break ground” as soon as the architects finish the total layout in blueprints.
Department members and the architects are still discussing each floor and have yet to cover room dimensions, wall colors, windows, elevators or other important details. According to the Exeter Bulletin, the newly built theater will be a 56,000-square-foot center and include a large main stage, orchestra pit and a “lobby capable of hosting events.” The theater will accommodate teaching, rehearsals, technical design, storage and craft. Richards said the theater and dance departments were in need of a building that accommodated the program and those in the department are excited to have the new space. “Fisher Theater was built before there was a theater department, so to have it follow our vision is a tremendous acknowledgement for the arts at Exeter and our gratitude is just unlimited. This [building] will be a whole new approach and I’m sure there will be a transition phase [when we move into it], but we are beyond excitement,” Richards said.
Upper Keji Oladinni, who was in the mainstage musical last term, agreed that the new building will be a big step for the theater department, and said she thinks the whole department will be affected positively by the change. “I mean even though the theater has a lot of character and it’s really old, I think [a new center] will just legitimize the theater department even more.” Oladinni said. “While it is a really legitimate department and people respect it, the space is really messy and it’s old, and I think making it nicer in general will probably affect the quality of the shows because we’ll just have better resources and space.”
The library Commons, the music building expansion and the rebuilding of the theater are three major advancements that Exeter has undertaken this past school year. “I hope the renovations, like the library commons, will be beneficial for the Academy,” lower Erik Carlson said. “I’m sure they will.”