Music box - architecture of music library and rehearsal facility at Princeton University's conservatory of music

Housing the Schiede Music Library, rehearsal rooms and faculty offices, Juan Navarro Baldeweg's new building at Princeton University extends the existing Woolworth Conservatory of Music. The Princeton campus is an Arcadian haven of object buildings from various eras set in a mature landscape, and Baldeweg's discreet contemporary contribution adds to this lineage. Eased into the north flank of the existing Woolworth block, the new building's nougat-like mixture of different sorts and sizes of spaces is expressed through an irregular (though not capriciously so) geometry that relieves the rather stern brick orthogonality of its neighbour. Baldeweg also uses brick (a soft warm red against existing burnt umber), partnered with cream metal cladding and bands of horizontal glazing that sit immaculately flush within the taut brick skin. The handling of materials displays a quiet assurance; nothing is forced or flashy and detailing is consistently simple and refined. The west flank of the new extension opens up towards Prospect House, a nineteenth-century mansion, now recolonized as a faculty building. Given over to quieter, more contemplative activities such as the library reading room and cellular staff offices, this wing is more permeable and transparent, protected from the glare of the afternoon sun by a row of green brises-soleil,

The new library, rehearsal space and staff offices are arranged around a central circulation court gouged into the heart of the building. Daylight is funnelled into this luminous gorge through two large clerestory windows. The angular V-shaped profile of the skylight roofs rises like a pair of periscopes above the brick-clad, earthbound volumes. Gently grafting together old and new parts, the tall court forms the complex's spatial and organizational fulcrum, bounded by processional flights of stairs and a huge glass wall (reminiscent of an oversized shop window or fishtank) that simultaneously encloses and reveals the music library. As it extends towards the fan-shaped lobby of the main entrance, the glass wall is transformed into a curved prow, like a sleek ocean liner. Cool white wall planes subtly reinforce the nautical allusion. A trapezoidal rehearsal hall, sunk into the lower ground level, adjoins the main entrance. Here too, a glass wall visually connects the rehearsal space with the circulation court.

Extending over three floors, the library is a series of calm, logically ordered spaces. Functions that require the constant supervision of library staff, such as reference stacks and reserve collection are placed on the ground floor; less staff-dependent activities are located on the upper levels. The main reading room forms a long bar along the west edge of the building, separated from the book stacks by a knuckle of circulation. The top floor is the most hermetic, housing oversized volumes, monastic study carrels and staff and faculty offices. It is hard to endow stacks of volumes with a sense of drama, but the great glass wall is undoubtedly theatrical, exposing the terraced levels of books and scholarly comings and goings. As the educational heart and wellspring of the school, it is apt that the library's presence and purpose should be expressed in such a modestly spectacular manner. Baldeweg's finely judged synthesis of space and light, coupled with a discerning attention to materiality, elevates and civilizes the process of learning.

Architect Juan Navarro Baldeweg, Madrid

Project team Juan Navarro Baldeweg, Enrique Punjana, Lesley Dowling

Associate architects WASA Architects & Engineers

Structural engineers Severud Associates, Juan de La Torre

Acoustic consultant Acentech

Photographs Duccio Malagamba

COPYRIGHT 1999 EMAP Architecture
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group