Northeastern Illinois University Fine Arts Building

Description

This new 110,000 square foot, two-story structural steel building with exterior walls of masonry and precast panels houses education for music, dance, arts and crafts. There are eighteen student practice rooms, a dance studio, keyboard and music education laboratories, a music library, and a two-hundred seat theater and stage. Acoustics were a primary concern; including the isolation of sounds from mechanical equipment and from adjacent areas to creating an acoustically pure performing environment. Separate visual arts studios are equipped for jewelry-making, ceramics, drawing, figure modeling, painting, sculpture, welding, printmaking, and photography. Located within a busy campus, the Project required careful attention to site use and traffic control. Ongoing student activities required strict separation of construction operations from the general population.