Groton Hill Music Center – A Structure That is Truly Part of the Show

Hybrid event

This conference is presented in hybrid mode. You have the choice to attend in person at ÉTS or online.

No registration required to attend in person at ÉTS

General information

This conference will be presented in English. Cette conférence sera présentée en anglais.

The content of the conference (PowerPoint) cannot be shared with participants after the conference.

Description of the conference

The Groton Hill Music Center is a new music education and performance facility located in the farmlands of eastern Massachusetts. Its owners, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1985, describe their new home as a “126,000-square feet love letter to sound,” with studio classrooms for students of all ages, an orchestral rehearsal space, a 300-seat recital hall for soloists and small ensembles, and a grand 1000-seat concert hall that opens to viewing from the surrounding outdoor fields in warm weather.

From the early design stages, the owner set a goal to achieve world-class natural and amplified acoustics in the building. Normally, engineers accomplish this by completely covering the structure to isolate it from the acoustic volume of the performance spaces. However, what made Groton Hill Music Center so unique was the architect’s unifying vision, expressed in early concept design sketches, to utilize exposed mass timber to integrate acoustics, structure, and aesthetic finishes with the building’s rural setting. Indeed, concertgoers who experience performances in the building, designed using a hybrid of steel, concrete, and timber, are literally “listening to the structure.”

The architect chose mass timber for many reasons, including: material warmth and ambience; resonance with regional historic building methods; a desire to use renewable and sustainable products; and its ability to provide structure, spatial definition, and finishes as one system. Through an integrated collaboration between the architect, structural engineers, acoustic consultants, timber fabricators, and builders, the abstract forms throughout the building were carefully engineered to achieve the project’s objectives.

Lance will provide an overview of the project, describe some of the innovative structural solutions that were incorporated into the design, and explain how the building structure truly is part of the show.

Legal

Speakers invited by the “Montreal Structural Engineer” (hereinafter MSE) are fully responsible for their presentation and content. The content of the presentation involve only the speaker. Information communicated at MSE conferences is provided without warranty and reflect the opinions of the speaker only. “Montreal Structural Engineer” cannot be held responsible for any error, inaccuracy or omission related to the information broadcast during its conferences. Finally, MSE cannot be held responsible for the non-compliance in the transcription of extracts of norm, law or regulation reproduced or summarized. These excerpts are present to facilitate explanations and do not have the force of law. Any interpretation of norm, law or regulation must be made from official publications.