Hamel Music Center

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  • The nearly $56 million facility will fill an entire open space immediately adjacent to the Chazen Museum of Art. The 75,000-square foot building will include a 680-seat concert hall, named the Mead Witter Foundation Hall. Additional features include the 315-seat Collins Recital Hall and a new rehearsal space for large student ensembles. Hamel Music Center is expected to be completed in time for the 2018-2019 concert season.
  • The Hamel Music Center will be dedicated to music and acoustics, and built with double-concrete walls and roof to block traffic noise from University Avenue. The striking design of the new building includes a glass-walled lobby and rehearsal room, visible to passersby.
  • Hooper plumbing crews along with General Heating and Air Conditioning (GHAC) are pleased to be working alongside the general contractor, J.P. Cullen.
  • GHAC and Hooper plumbing crews have taken many steps and utilized innovative approaches to ensure high quality sound control and building acoustics results. Some examples include:
    • The four large air handling units (AHUs), that will feed the entire building, are being tested by a third party in a full factory sound test prior to being shipped. There are only a handful of factories in North America that can do this testing.
    • Each AHU is getting a very large specialty sound attenuator on both the supply and return duct. This will limit all sound from escaping the AHU as much as possible, which eliminates the largest source of noise in the HVAC system.
    • Insulation requirements are above and beyond the standard state specifications, in order to limit duct and pipe noise throughout the building.
    • The Concert Hall seating is built over a large concrete plenum. The AHU will feed air into this plenum, and a diffuser under each seat will diffuse the air into the space. Other air in the Concert Hall will come from behind the balcony, to eliminate air noise during any performances.
    • Plumbing and other mechanical systems are routed through corridors and back-of-house spaces, around the three main areas of the building, to eliminate penetrations in the Acoustically Isolated Construction (AIC) surrounding the Concert Hall, Recital Hall, and Rehearsal Hall. The AIC requirements are in place to prevent any noise or vibration from transferring to the structure of the building.
  • Since the construction site is located in the central part of the 45,000 student campus community, significant care has been devoted to all stages of construction especially with the movement of large pieces of equipment and materials. Extremely limited space immediately external to the construction has required creative and innovative approaches relating to material storage, prefabrication, and the processes used for movement and assembly. These special accommodations have impacted such areas as: ductwork, piping assemblies, equipment assemblies, etc.
  • A project of this size and complexity requires close cooperation and a commitment to shared objectives. GHAC & Hooper worked closely with JP Cullen to lead the building information modeling (BIM) coordination efforts on this building. This was necessary in order to prefabricate our material and meet the schedule required for the HVAC & plumbing install.