Introduction and Overview

n January 6 1997, after nearly a decade of careful planning, the University of California, Santa Cruz, offered its first classes in its new Music Center. The Music Center was offically dedicated on May 22, 1997 by Edward Houghton, Dean, Division of the Arts. Neighboring the Performing Arts and Baskin Visual Arts complexes, the $21 million center expands a cluster of arts facilities located above the Great Meadow. The new facility offers a number of performance venues as well as classrooms and teaching studios outfitted with advanced audio-visual technology and outfitted with state-of-the-art digital audio, video, and recording systems.

he center is designed by award-winning Albuquerque architect Antoine Predock, known worldwide for creating buildings that blend in with their environment. Predock described the UCSC Music Center as a combination of "the poetic topographic elements of the UCSC campus--ravine, meadow, and rocky outcropping-- organized in a choreographed sequence to form a music village where the great meadow meets the edge of the redwood forest." The UCSC building is arranged around a central plaza embracing stunning vistas of the tree-ringed meadow and the Monterey Bay. The center's courtyards, hallways, and sightlines evoke the gullies, canyons, and gentle slopes of the surrounding hillsides.

he facility was eagerly anticipated by the Music Department, which has experienced years of steady enrollment increases and long ago outgrew its designated space in the Performing Arts Complex. (A study conducted in 1988-89 found that the space assigned for music studies served only 59 percent of the department's actual needs. The study, based on state guidelines for square footage needed per student, projected that the old space would meet less than 42 percent of the Music Department's needs by 1996-97.)

he acoustic design and capabilities of the new Music Center are considered to be among the best of any university music facility in the country. The acoustic design of the center was overseen by Acoustical engineer Ron McKay of McKay Conant Brook, Inc., of Westlake Village, California.

s the department settles into its new space, work has already begun on an adjoining electronic music studio, faculty and department offices, and a freestanding gamelan studio. At the same time, new construction is also expanding and improving other space in the Division of the Arts that will benefit the visual arts, theater arts, and film and video programs.

Music Center Facts

Construction began
November 1994

Building opened
January 1997

Cost
$21 million

Architect
Antoine Predock, FAIA, of Albuquerque, New Mexico

Acoustical design
Ron McKay of McKay Conant Brook, Inc., of Westlake Village, California

Square Feet
49,000

Facilities
396-seat Recital Hall
13 teaching studios
20 practice rooms
5 classrooms
recording studio
ensemble rehearsal room
60-seat performance studio
music library
percussion studio
office space
Of Further Interest:

Acoustic Design

Recital Hall

Recording Studio