The final project assignment for Second Year students at Kansas State University was to design a music center in a small, infill site in downtown Dallas,Texas. The site includes a neighboring one-story building to the southwest, a future site of a neighboring building to the northwest, a 20' wide easement to the northeast and a 42'x100' buildable area.
Students are to learn how to build vertically, as a roughly a 13,000 sq. ft. stucture is to occupy the space.
Spaces in the Texas Music Center are to include a 1,600 sq ft. performance hall, 2,800 sq ft. of gallery spaces, as well as smaller spaces such as a recording studio, musicians lounge, and archive rooms. Restrooms should be every floor, one elevator is required, and one main stair and a fire stair are required.
For my design, I wanted to fit these spaces meaningfully into a good architecural form. Taking inspiration from I.M. Pei's Fountain Place in Dallas, I wanted to work with slanted walls, and therefore various types of interior lighting. The walls therefore, define spatial zones for the music center.
The first floor, is an entry floor, and the walls are slanted outward to allow light. The second and third floors are gallery spaces, and the walls are slanted inward, to control lighting. The fourth and fifth floors are dedicated to the double story performance hall, and the walls are slanted outward. Finally, the sixth and seventh floors are for the main galleries and meant to be a destination point for visitors. This double story volume includes slanted inward walls, and skylights above to provide dramatic lighting.
