This complex project was assigned as the former music building on the University of Tennessee’s campus was being demolished and replaced by a larger and more modern structure to meet the demands of a growing university.Given the detailed program of the new music building, each student was to design an ideal structure that spoke to the nature of an academic and cultural complex that housed both classrooms that were used everyday and public large-scale theatre and performance spaces that were used on special occasions.The parti developed into a narrative that spoke of the complexities of sound and teaching. The three spaces where sound was both important and public -- the band room, the recital hall, and the larger performance hall -- were shaped like boulders as if the sound had pushed and contorted the volumes from the repeated sound-waves. The shapes are unique and surround a large public atrium that acts as a node for students during class breaks and for intermission during performances or important events. The areas where instruction was crucial--the personal practice rooms and classrooms-- were envisioned as glazed spaces symbolizing the transparent nature of learning in a modern institution of higher education.
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