By Daniel Fryland
Photos by David Roswell
Fearless and Loathing received the first student tour of the new Phyllis Litoff building. The building will feature practice rooms, teaching studios, a rooftop garden, a café and a state-of-the-art recording studio.
Michael Lynn, the Associate Dean of Technology and Facilities for the Conservatory, showed off three different floors of the green Jazz building. Construction is well under way and a dedication for the Litoff building is planned for May 1st 2010.
The Phyllis Litoff Building will have three floors and a full basement, which will have lockers for jazz students. The building was designed to be environmentally friendly, featuring geothermal heating that will be completely separate from the College’s heating system. It is expected to have at least a LEED Gold Certification.
As we approached the site, Michael told us that the North and West of the building will be almost completely glass. The South and East of the building will be aluminum, the industrial use of which was pioneered by Charles Martin Hall. The space between the Conservatory and the Litoff building will be left open and will be landscaped as a space that students can spend time when weather permits. The third floor café stretches above the courtyard, completing the framing of the planned courtyard.
The first floor of the Litoff features three ensemble practice rooms for jazz groups. Each room will have a Steinway Grand Piano and a drum set. These rooms will likely be used at some point for small classes, but are not planned as classrooms. “There’s nothing I would call a classroom” in the Litoff building, explained Michael Lynn.
The first floor will feature three rehearsal spaces specifically designed for jazz ensembles. Each room will feature a Steinway Grand Piano as well as a drum set.
We ascended the stairs to the second floor, the east side of which consists of individual practice rooms while the rooms on the west side will be offices for Jazz Studies professors. The practice rooms offer a view of the backside of downtown Oberlin, which may provide inspiration for the jazz students who will practice there. The second floor also has a piano teaching studio, containing two 7′ grand pianos, a support space for the recording studio, which will be on the first floor, and a computer lab set up for music theory students, though it will be open to anyone.
The second floor's east side will consist of practice rooms with plenty of natural light. When asked how the pianos will be brought to the second floor, Michael replied, “Experience.” The only rooms in the building without natural light are the percussion practice rooms on the first floor.
The third floor is intended mainly for music history and music theory, but much of the space will be dedicated to a roof garden and a café.
Michael showed us the glassed-in terrarium on the third floor that he affectionately refers to as “the hot tub,” and explained that this will allow outside weather to affect the fauna and set the mood inside of the building.
The café, which will be cased almost entirely in glass, will extend from the Litoff and connect to the Conservatory. Michael informed us that the café is not intended as a performance space.
There will be an indoor staircase and an elevator from the Conservatory to the third floor café of Litoff. On the ground level, the pathway from the Conservatory to the Litoff building will be an open air walkway.
There will be an outdoor staircase to the third floor roof garden. It will also be accessible from the third floor, which will have rooms for the music theory and music history departments.
After touring the café, we returned to the first floor to see the percussion practice rooms, which will be the only rooms in the building without natural sunlight, a percussion-teaching studio, which will probably hold about four drum sets, and the recording studio.
Double-layered walls will separate the acoustics of the recording studio from the rest of the building.
The recording studio is technically part of the Litoff building, but it is designed to behave acoustically as if it were a separate structure. The studio will be able to double as a live performance space, and as such its design presents a number of acoustical challenges. Michael informed us that the design of a recording studio as well as a performance space will reduce the need for digital alteration of recordings. While there will be a recording set up inside of the studio for personal recordings or demo tapes, the studio will also have a state-of-the-art support room, which will be run by Paul Eachus, the Director of Audio Services for the Conservatory.
The control room will feature state-of-the-art equipment, which will not be for student use. The Conservatory's sound engineer, Paul Eachus, will use the equipment to record student ensembles.
The studio is also set up to allow for video streaming, so that live performances in the space can be streamed to the Conservatory’s website. The space is designed to have minimal stage space, however, so that it will remain as flexible as possible.
The tour of the studio marked the end of our tour of the Litoff. As we walked across the open area that will form the courtyard, I visualized a landscaped sitting area with students passing through on their way to class and the sound of impromptu jazz sessions from the roof garden. Michael’s closing words offered an explanation of the effort being put into the building: “Oberlin deserves to do things as well as possible.” With this as a goal, the Litoff promises to be a good start.
THIS IS SO RIDICULOUSLY EXCITING!
Fantastic story, I didn’t think reading it would be so stunning when I clicked at the url!
Looks like its going to be really cool! Can’t wait for the cafe upstairs!
So if its supposed to be green, how come the north wall is made of glass and not the south wall? What about passive solar heating?
I think the cafe will be nice as well as having a space for jazz students. I’m glad the space will be LEED certified and i don’t know why not the south wall but it seems that there isnt much of a south wall alex.
Also is stevie wonder still coming to inaugurate it?!
They are still “negotiating” with Stevie Wonder. He has not signed a contract yet.
Too bad this building apparently has no more practice space for jazz ensembles than hales currently does…it looks pretty though..
I’m so excited for this! i love the windows on the sides haha
I work in the con audio department and I can assure readers that this new recording studio will be an amazing feat of engineering and technological marvel!!!
The equipment is top of the line and I think it will give Oberlin students the chance to make audition tapes better than never before.
This will be truly one of the best buildings on campus!
I wonder what kind of food will be in the café…
This building makes Robertson look pretty ghetto. I wonder if Stevie Wonder is really going to come for the opening. Also, what will happen to the old recording studio after the new one is finished. Will it be more accessible than it is currently?
I was in Oberlin last spring (’09)to visit my boyfriend (who’s wondering about Stevie Wonder) at the conservatory! I am excited to visit this spring (’10) and see the progress on the building…and to see my boyfriend, of course!