Historic
Tour > Virtual Tour > Alexander Music
Building
Alexander Music Building
Historic
Name(s): Frederick M. Alexander Music
Building
Date
Constructed: Groundbreaking on October
14th, 1978, Opened in 1980
Architect:
Wakely Associates, Inc. of Warren, MI. Contractor:
Spence Brothers of Saginaw
Style
of Architecture: International/Post
Modern
Original
Use: Music Building
Dates
of Renovation: Unknown
Current
Use:
Music Building
History:
Alexander Music Building bears the name of
Frederick
M. Alexander,
Music Department head, 1909-41. Alexander came
to the Normal College at age 38, and remained
until his retirement. He established his reputation
in the area of choral work, becoming a national
figure with his choirs. In 1929 and 1930, Alexander
conducted the Massed Chorus Festival in Washington,
D.C. and in 1932 he was invited to take charge
of the music for the dedication of the Folger
Shakespeare Library in Washington. He died in
1955 his will providing for a sum of nearly
$90,000 for the purchase and installation of
a pipe organ in Pease Auditorium on EMU campus.
Wakely Associates,
Inc. designed the building specifically for
the needs of a music building. The building
consists of 86,000 square feet and contains
around 80 practice rooms of varying sizes,
an organ recital room and a large recital
hall with a stage and seating for 150. There
are also special practice rooms intended solely
for choral, band and orchestra use. Unique
features of the building include special instrument
repair rooms containing equipment to re-plate
brass instruments and tune and repair pianos.
Designers took extra steps to ensure acoustic
integrity in the new Frederick Alexander Music
Building. Special resilient sealants and caulking
were used in place of more traditional mortar
to keep sound from being transmitted throughout
the structure. Electrical outlets were staggered
so that no two outlets would be back-to-back
in a wall. Since solid walls tend to transmit
sound vibrations like a tuning fork, solid
walls were broken up, and practice and recital
rooms were designed with non-parallel walls.
The exterior
of the building blends with adjacent structures
in the fine arts complex, as well as with
the campus in general. The outer shell is
red brick and white concrete like Quirk Dramatic
Arts Building next door. The overhanging second
floor level, however, is reminiscent of Pray-Harrold.
The shift from strictly box shaped modernism
to more playful post-modernism is starting
to appear on campus buildings.
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Location
of Alexander Music Building (Click on
the image for a bigger view)
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