Campus and community to benefit from expanded arts facilities
An architectural concept of the proposed School of Music/Performing Arts Center shows the entrance at the northeast corner of Hitt Street and University Avenue.
A planning study and concept design have been completed for a new School of Music/Performing Arts Center and expanded visual arts facilities that will add a welcome new vibrancy to MU’s core academic environment.
The facility, to be located at the northeast corner of Hitt Street and University Avenue, will house not only music school faculty, staff and students, but will also feature a 1,000-seat concert hall and a 350-seat recital hall. Diagonally across the street, the existing Fine Arts Building will be renovated and expanded to include much-needed teaching, performance, studio and gallery spaces for the Department of Theatre and the Department of Art.
The new facilities are long overdue. The music school, art and theatre departments currently share the nearly 50-year-old Fine Arts Building, which long ago ceased to adequately support the missions of these three disciplines; each department came to rely on remote facilities, none of which meets existing facility standards.
New building makes connections
The new concert hall and its public lobbies will be situated along Hitt Street to reinforce a cultural connection to the city; the School of Music and recital hall will be located along University Avenue, reinforcing the building’s academic relationship with the campus.
The building will also feature shared service and support space, individual lobby and lounge space, individual-and group-practice instrument and voice space, classrooms and library space.
Administrative and departmental support space for the School of Music will be organized around a central atrium extending to the second level of the building.
Display, studio space to expand
The Fine Arts Building, which will continue to house theatre and art personnel and facilities, will be expanded and renovated to provide needed space and increased visibility. The existing art gallery will be replaced by an enlarged, multistory display gallery that will also serve as shared lobby and reception space for both departments. Additional studio space will be added for art department functions and an interior connection from the new lobby to the south end of the building will provide a functional and aesthetic enclosure connecting the art and theatre departments.
Completion of the SOM/PAC planning study and concept design parallels a 2006 joint urban-study plan among MU, the City of Columbia and Stephens College. Planners seek to develop the area between downtown Columbia and the north edge of campus along Elm Street to effect a town-gown regeneration and revitalization distinctive to Columbia.
