• Indiana University-Purdue University dedicates the new John and Ruth Rhinehart Music Center

• October 10, 2007

Officials, alumni and students at Indiana University-Purdue University (IPFW) recently celebrated the official opening of the new John and Ruth Rhinehart Music Center. A ribbon-cutting ceremony, followed by an evening concert featuring the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and world famous pianist Panayis Lyras marked the final milestone since the project’s planning began two years ago.

Designed by local architect Schenkel Schultz; Chicago-based theatre consultants, Schuler Shook; and architectural acoustics consultants, Kirkegaard Associates (KA), the 112,000 square foot building will be utilized for university functions, musical ensembles; and community arts events. Built to accommodate an ever growing student body and to expand their popular Arts program, construction on the Center began in 2005 and was completed at a cost of $25 million.

The Center houses the 1,600-seat Ione B. and Edward D. Auer Performance Hall; the 250-seat John and Ruth Rhinehart Recital Hall; practice rooms,rehearsal halls and support spaces. Responsible for room acoustics, noise control and audio/video system design consulting throughout the Center, KA collaborated to provide flexibility within the larger multi-purpose space. With three seating areas – an orchestra, first parterre, and second parterre (the latter of which could be easily roped off and not seated); there is also the ability to reduce the size of the stage which would enable more rows of seating to accommodate the internationally known Chancellor’s lecture series.

In this large asymmetrical room, curtains have been strategically placed to reduce reverberation time for lectures and rehearsals and to tune reverberation for various concerts and audience sizes. A design unique to the room is the ceiling where panels of heavy cotton canvas are stretched over frames. Over the stage, strips of canvas form a large convex swoop that allows the sound to be heard by the musicians while also being projected to members of the audience. Over the house, the canvas panels are divided into three sections – a shallow concave vault at the center, and a deeply bowed convex swoop running down each side. The center vault subtly concentrates sound from the stage on to the seating area, while the side swoops spread late-arriving reflections from the upper side wall corners.

The smaller two-storey space is dedicated to the Department of Music and is comprised of the John and Ruth Rhinehart Recital Hall; classrooms; administrative offices; practice rooms; teaching studios; a recording studio; a choral rehearsal room with adjustable acoustic curtains; and an instrumental rehearsal room also with adjustable acoustic curtains. To maintain “isolation” the loudest room (instrumental rehearsal) and the most sensitive (recital hall) both sit in voids within the space, disconnected from the rest of the structure.

The audio-video requirements for the Ione B. and Edward D. Auer Performance Hall, and the John and Ruth Rhinehart Recital Hall are supported by audio reinforcement for speech and music, and video projection for presentations and lectures.

The Choir and Instrumental Rehearsal Rooms provide audio playback and recording for classes and rehearsals; and the Recording Studio supports a TDM audio recording workstation.

The project team for Kirkegaard Associates was led by Joseph Myers, Senior Consultant and Project Manager, Louie Sunga, Senior Consultant for Architectural Integration; Jonathan Darling, Senior Consultant, and Joanne Chang, Consultant were responsible for the Audio-Video Systems Design; and Terry Tyson, Senior Consultant led the Mechanical and Noise Control design.