• University of Cincinnati – College Conservatory of Music

• Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Team

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, Design Architect; New York, NY
NBBJ-Roth, Architect of Record; Columbus, OH
Theatre Projects Consultants, Theatre Consultant; South Norwalk, CT

Project Awards

1997 AIA National - Merit Award for Architecture

Description

The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music had made do for years with a drab, scaleless, 1960s auditorium as their major performing venue. Technically, the stagehouse was adequately sized and equipped for the mix of opera and instrumental music that the College-Conservatory presented, but the room suffered from a thin, clattery, over bright sound, with excessive background noise.

As part of a series of projects that created a comprehensive suite of music facilities for CCM, Corbett Auditorium was gutted and its interior completely rebuilt. New box seating gave a sense of human scale to the room and broke up the sheer side walls.

The ¾”-thick Formica panels that covered the walls were removed to expose the rough sprayed-on concrete behind, which was then sealed with paint. At the rear wall the folded plate diffusion was replaced with Schroeder diffusers and bowed surfaces. The resulting highly diffusive rear wall is excellent for clarity in the audience area. The wall surfaces of painted rough concrete and the diffusive shaping were all concealed behind a 3’ x 3’ grid of vertical wood dowels. Within each square of the grid, the spacing of the dowels gradually increases and then decreases to avoid a ‘picket fence’ effect.

To serve instrumental music, the existing short, thin shell with a horizontal ceiling was replaced with a heavy wood shell as tall as the proscenium, with a projectively angled ceiling. The shell’s walls are stabilized by triangular jack braces. The wall panels are tied back to the stagehouse wall for storage, with the jack braces folded flat to minimize any loss of footprint in the stagehouse.

The hall was remade without significant change to its seat count. Its acoustics were greatly improved – mellower and clearer, with less background noise, more presence, and more reverberation, especially for orchestral performances.

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