Expansions to Concert Hall Ready for Use
Renovations to the Exeter campus announced last spring are now well underway. Though incoming students may not recognize any changes, returning students and faculty members have been surprised during their return to campus by just how major the changes made over the summer were.
Most notably, the new Forrestal-Bowld Music Center, which stands adjacent to the original music building, is now officially finished and ready for use.
According to music department chair Peter Schultz, the music department has been in need of a new and improved space for some time. As the music program has expanded considerably over the years, the department found itself overcrowded and inconvenienced.
Schultz noted that with community members taking full advantage of the music facilities and resources,“We didn’t have enough teaching spaces for our adjuncts to teach lessons in, some of our ensembles were rehearsing in rooms that were way too small or were in places that were inconvenient for everybody.”
“The Forrestal-Bowld Music Center, before the new addition, was being used to capacity,” music instructor Eric Sinclair said. He added that every room from teaching studios to office spaces to rehearsal and practice rooms were all full “almost all of the time.”
“A lot happened over the summer, on many small projects as well as the larger ones.”
However, both Sinclair and Schultz gratefully acknowledged the quality of the original musical building which has served so many students in the past and has created a vibrant music community on campus. “The faculty, teachers and students who worked in and regularly used the building simply just made the best of it,” Sinclair said. “Even crowded, it was still a fabulous space.”
Still, the new concert hall comes with several perks. It will allow the music department to hold the majority of their concerts in the music building, rather than in other locations, such as Phillips Church and Assembly Hall. Other new additions include a Harkness classroom, a musicianship studio, several large teaching and ensemble studios, new offices and a much expanded Music Library.
Schultz expressed gratitude for the recent changes. “It is a major upgrade to our already beautiful building, and of course we are thrilled and delighted to be able to make music with Exeter’s students in it,” he said.
Sinclair echoed Schultz’s excitement. “All of this will give the faculty, teachers and students that are Exeter’s music program room to breathe and a wider variety of spaces in which to learn, explore, grow and be inspired to create ever more wonderful music,” he said.
Music instructor Jon Sakata expressed his hope that the new spaces and resources provided by the music center will inspire the Exeter community to unite in a kind of shared creativity. “As the music world—and indeed what music even ‘is’—continues to expand, multiply, diversify, mutate, it will be exciting to see how the new additions contribute to our ongoing individual and collective responses and engagements with these growths and unfoldings.”
Schultz agreed. “It’s always been my dream that every Exeter student spend some time in the music building during the course of her/his career here,” he continued. “I hope this addition will be so attractive that my dream will come true!”
The concert hall represents the first of many big changes on campus. According to Director of Planning & Facilities Roger Wakeman, other renovations are coming along nicely. “All [is] proceeding according to plan,” he said. Some projects are still in the planning stage.
In another nod to the arts, preparation for the building of the Goel Center for Theater and Dance has begun on the south side of campus, adjacent to the Love Gym. The center will include two theater stages and two dance venues, as well as classrooms and technical studios. Until now, theater classes have been taught in scattered classrooms across campus. Exeter’s student-run theater group, DRAMAT, will also have its own space in which to rehearse and perform. The Goel Center will be ready for use by by Spring of 2018.
This summer also saw the demolition of Exeter’s Thompson Cage, which, despite being a treasured historical gem, had aged and worn past the point of practicality and safety. In its stead, Exeter will see the erection of “the Field House,” an 85,574-square-foot facility that will begin construction in October. The Field House will come equipped with a 200-meter track, enabling the Exeter track team to host home meets, as they did in the Cage’s glory days.
The Field House will also feature four indoor tennis courts, an infield, two batting cages, a wrestling room, a new set of bleachers and NCAA-regulation areas for shot put, high jump, long jump and pole vault. A new 14-court tennis center, complete with an elevated viewing plaza, will provide further opportunities for aspiring athletes at Phillips Exeter. These renovations are scheduled to be finished by the spring of 2018, and will elevate Exeter’s athletics to a new level. Exeter also has designed several green spaces and a “pedestrian lane,” which will establish easy access to all locations on the South Side of the campus. These too will be completed by spring 2018.
In addition to the larger projects tackled over the summer, such as the erection of the concert hall and the demolition of the Cage, contractors also refurbished Amen Hall and the third floor of the Library.
“A lot happened over the summer, on many small projects as well as the larger ones,” Wakeman said.