The 170,000 sq.-ft. building will be located in the southwest corner of the parking lot east of the J. Reuben Clark Law School and will feature a number of upgrades to the facilities.
(Photo courtesy of BYU)
Construction crews are making considerable progress on the new music building at Brigham Young University, which was approved in February 2020.
Currently under construction by Big D Construction (with HKS Architects as the architecture firm), the new digs are expected to open by November 2022, according to University Communications.
The 170,000 sq.-ft. building will be located in the southwest corner of the parking lot east of the J. Reuben Clark Law School and will feature a number of upgrades to the facilities the School of Music currently has in the Harris Fine Arts Center.
The new music building will increase the amount of square-footage the school works with and will fix a number of problems that current music students currently face, such as the lack of a concert hall and a choral room — currently students practice and perform in an auditorium — and rooms that are not fit well acoustically to the point of being a “safety issue.”
“We actually have a situation, where because the sonic volume gets so high in the orchestra and band rooms, that students are required to wear earplugs,” said Ed Adams, dean of the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications, adding that the School of Music director compared the situation to “giving painters gloves and sunglasses to do what they do.”
“We are humbled and thrilled with the board’s support of the College of Fine Arts and Communications,” said Adams. “The Church has a long history of supporting music and the arts, and this new building will expand upon the university’s commitment to producing inspiring and uplifting art.”
BYU Approves New Art Building
The Brigham Young University board of trustees has approved plans to construct a new Arts Building for the College of Fine Arts and Communications. It will be built where the Harris Fine Arts Center (HFAC) is currently located.
Demolition of the HFAC is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2023 following the completion of the new Music Building. Construction of the new Arts Building will commence immediately after the demolition. The project is expected to be completed toward the end of 2025. Big D Construction has been selected as the general contractor for the project, with HKS Architects as the architecture firm.
The college will temporarily occupy the former Provo High School located on University Avenue while the new Arts Building is being constructed.
The HFAC was dedicated in 1965 and currently houses four of the college’s six academic units. The School of Music also uses the building and will move into the new Music Building upon its completion at the end of 2022.
The new Arts Building will house offices for the college, as well as for the departments of Art, Design and Theater & Media Arts (TMA). It also will host academic spaces, galleries, performance spaces, media viewing rooms, a cinema and a production studio. The other current occupants of the HFAC, the School of Music, will move to the new Music Building, which is currently being constructed.
“The arts and music programs are beacons of excellence for the university,” said Shane Reese, BYU academic vice president. “We look forward to these two new beautiful buildings, which will accentuate the amazing talents of our students, faculty and staff who work in that college.”
The building will house a large collaborative hub for Department of Design students as well as multiple art and design galleries. There also will be a combination lobby and student gathering space. A six-station lactation room will accommodate students and their families as well as patrons.
“The new building will create proximity and more opportunities for collaboration and student mentoring,” said Adams. “Our faculty and staff are now spread over five floors and are located at the far ends of the Harris Fine Arts Center from each other.”