Re-Entering Boston Symphony Hall, by Way of Marfa, Texas

The studio will be in two parallel parts. The first will focus on exploration of strategies of minimalism mostly in art, but to some degree in architecture as well. This exploration will involve individual research projects, looking comparatively at minimalist artists and will include a trip to the Chinati Foundation and Museum of Modern Art founded in 1983 by Donald Judd in Marfa, Texas.The second part of the studio will deal with Boston Symphony Hall, designed at the turn of the 20th century by McKim, Mead and White, and widely considered among the best places in the world to hear orchestral music. This extraordinary concert hall has two major deficiencies. Most importantly, Symphony Hall has for sometime been without a functioning, legible front door. Since the city of Boston\’s unfortunate decision to tunnel Huntington Avenue under Massachusetts Avenue (which rendered the building\’s main entrance all but inaccessible) concertgoers have entered a secondary side entrance with difficulty and awkwardness. Beyond the performance hall itself, the building lacks space for amenities common to most other concert halls such as reception space, a cafi/bar, a shop and coatrooms. Developing solutions to these problems will be a second parallel focus of the studio. Throughout the semester the studio will be concerned with inquiry and process, rather than answers and finished product. The non-straight forward and the purely experimental will be encouraged. Connections between the two parts of the studio remain to be discovered.Further Information