Haverford is a prominent liberal arts college on Philadelphia’s Main Line. Their new music building replaces outdated facilities in nearby Union Hall with renovated space and a new addition that includes a large classroom and the spectacular Michael Jaharis Recital Hall.
The renovated portion of the music building captures space in the basement and backstage of Marshall Auditorium’s stagehouse, a 1992 addition to the 1907 auditorium in Roberts Hall that continues to be Haverford’s largest space for concerts. The renovation offers new teaching studios, practice rooms, and a chamber music / seminar room, as well as some lightly-renovated existing practice rooms and new library facilities. The reading room for the library is a light-filled two-story space that doubles as a student lounge and also serves as the lobby for Jaharis Recital Hall. The large flat floor in Jaharis accommodates chorus and orchestra rehearsals, and the fixed seating makes the room comfortable for chamber music recitals. Custom diffusive panels enliven the walls, and subtly-shaped gypsum board walls and ceilings keep the sound mellow. Glass walls connect Jaharis visually to the campus. Background noise is quiet throughout. Kirkegaard also designed AV systems for Jaharis and the large music classroom. These systems include playback, amplification, archival recording and higher quality recording, and video projection. The AV systems were designed to be robust and flexible, with a targeted level of complexity that reflected detailed input from the users.
