Glenn Korff School of Music

A next-generation creative center for music and dance excellence that serves as a space for cross-disciplinary collaboration and artistic expression on UNL campus

Information

Location Lincoln, Nebraska
Size 101,000 SF
Services Architecture
Project Type Performing Arts

The new Glenn Korff School of Music Building will be a premiere creative center for music and dance excellence located on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) campus. It will redefine what it means to be a collaborative, inclusive, and healthy environment for performing arts education for the 21st century. Located at the corner of 10th and Q streets, the building will act as a welcoming front door to the city campus and tie into the existing Arts Quad. The project features an iconic Performance Hall which utilizes physical and electronic adjustable acoustics and leverages performance technology to make the room as flexible and adaptable as possible. The room itself becomes a creative tool for expanding interdisciplinary, multimedia performance possibilities. The project also features rehearsal and practice rooms with daylight and views; a state-of-the-art digital recording studio and lounge spaces for study and student gathering.

Impact + Innovation

The new facility is designed to create a welcoming and inclusive space, increase visibility for the school, and promote interdisciplinary collaboration across the college’s programs. The multi-functional lobby is designed to serve as a prefunction space for performances, as well as a space for pop-up performances and student and faculty socialization. Practice rooms located on upper levels will have intentional sound bleeds down into the lobby and south bar lounge space, and views into the interior will showcase creativity in action, inviting the campus community to engage with the school.

The Glenn Korff School of Music is envisioned to be a hub of creativity and model of music and dance education. With the intention of setting students up for success in a creative field, rooms will be equipped with technology that provide better opportunities for sound exploration and enable students to promote themselves as content creators and performers.

Process

BNIM’s integrated design team, in collaboration with Sinclair Hille Architects, is working closely with the School of Music and its stakeholders to create a facility that will be a campus destination for high-quality arts education, scholarship, creativity, and performance. The design is focused on enhancing human health and wellness while also addressing technical requirements for the school of music such as sound isolation; optimum hearing quality and safety; room size and volume; accessibility; and HVAC systems with humidification for instrument preservation. The Westbrook Music Building, together with the Kimball Recital Hall, will interweave the existing site with new construction to meet the school’s needs and enable future growth.

The building’s location adjacent to a busy on-ramp required special attention to acoustics in the building’s organization. To address this issue, the design team placed the noise-making rehearsal spaces for instruments and percussion closest to the highway, while sound-sensitive spaces like the Recording Suite and Performance Hall have been located away from the highway. The Performance Hall has been designed to double as a musical lab, equipped with state-of-the-art technology, allowing for flexibility and adaptability. Additionally, practice rooms will be tuned to specific disciplines and instrumental requirements to further enhance the quality of student work.