The Design of Otto and Fran Walter Hall Is Unveiled

The design of Otto and Fran Walter Hall – our new music building and campus front door – was unveiled before alumni, friends, faculty, staff, and students.

Located on Muskingum’s historic East Campus, Walter Hall will welcome students and visitors to the campus, and connect them with the main academic quadrangle beyond. The 20,000-square-foot building will more than double the Music Department’s current space and is designed to provide state-of-the-art acoustics. As the elevation drawings show, the building promises to be spectacular.

The new space will offer a thoughtfully designed environment for teaching, learning, and performing music in the twenty-first century. Features include:

Two recital halls for choral and instrumental performances
Acoustically designed classrooms
Composing and arranging laboratory
Piano, percussion, and ensemble music studios
Music library
Faculty and student studios and practice rooms

Robert J. Miklos, FAIA, principal of designLAB architects, will serve as Walter Hall’s lead architect. Specializing in performing arts structures, museums, and libraries, his work includes the Boston Athenaeum, the Daniel Arts Center at Simon’s Rock College of Bard, and the Ray Charles Center for the Performing Arts at Morehouse College. Gary C. Balog, principal of balog steines, hendricks & manchester architects, will serve as the Ohio partner on the project.

Jaffe Holden of Norwalk, Connecticut, sound consultants to the New York Philharmonic, will provide acoustical design. Jaffe Holden’s projects include Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, the Kennedy Center, and schools of music for universities across the country.

Construction is scheduled to begin this summer and to be completed by Fall 2010.

In the illustration:
Top – The South Elevation: Walter Hall as viewed from College Drive.
Center – The North Elevation: Walter Hall as viewed from the Spoon Holder.
Bottom – The Southwest Elevation: Walter Hall as viewed from Brown Chapel.