Bucksbaum Campus

project type:  Institutional / Performing Arts / Cultural / Educational

building size:  105,000 SF

site size:  38 acre site

construction cost:  $70 Million

primary materials:  Minerit Siding (rainscreen), Corrugated Metal, Insulated Kalwall, Polygal Panels, Trex Decking, Glazing, Log Columns

Three large orchestra rehearsal halls, a cantilevered glass pavilion, and a dining hall surround a string of ponds to comprise a thoroughly redesigned campus shared by a world-renowned summer music school and a private day school. Fulfilling the dream of every institution, the campus is occupied year round with the institutions jointly sharing more than 85% of the indoor spaces. The multiuse campus accommodates the 600 music school students and their faculty in the summer and 250 K-8 students from September through May. The day school uses the rehearsal halls for art and drama and the pavilion for its music program. The music school uses classrooms for practice and rehearsal.

Located in a steep high Rocky Mountain valley of extraordinary natural beauty with several ponds and a clear mountain stream the site was not without some serious challenges including avalanches, landslides, rock fall, wild fires, and toxic soils from the mining days. The new master plan keeps these hazards and vehicular traffic on the perimeter with the individual structures working together to create a variety of sheltered natural outdoor gathering spaces and emphasize the more distant vistas. Bridges, causeways and decks overhanging the ponds provide traffic-free circulation while animating the campus with ambling students.

All but the three existing buildings were built in two short nine-month phases. Each building is unique and expresses its own identity and purpose while relating to the other structures around a common theme of connection to their natural setting. Color, texture, materials and form combine to relate, respond, contrast and reveal the many moods of their dynamic environment. The three large rehearsal halls use “razzle dazzle” camouflage techniques to deconstruct large acoustic volumes required for rehearsing the super-sized music school orchestras (up to 150 instruments). Angles and shapes reveal the underlying and exposed geology that shaped the surrounding mountains.

The interiors of the buildings combine responses to the academic personality and physical needs of the school with acoustic requirements of the musicians. For music the interiors require specific surfaces to absorb, reflect and disburse sound. Translucent insulated clerestories temper the sharp contrast of the high altitude sun filling the spaces with glowing natural light while dramatic structural systems augment the lively acoustic environment with corresponding visual energy.

As a whole the Bucksbaum Campus attempts to create a strong sense of community and place as well as a stimulating inspirational environment for learning by establishing a close but provocative relationship to its extraordinary natural surroundings.