The Record 2014 - 2015

REVIEWS OF THE YEAR Bursar’s Report Stephen Withers Green Projects In June 2015, the School started the construction of a new music school largely on the site of the Ferguson Music School (Peter Bosanquet & Partners, 1962) which provided the School with 10 practice rooms and three larger recital rooms for orchestras and other ensembles. The new music school has been designed by Tim Ronalds Architects and is being built by Feltham Construction Ltd. It will contain 20 practice rooms, seven ensemble rooms, a rock room and recording studio, three classrooms, a recital/rehearsal room, a music library, various offices and a staff room. The cost of the building, excluding enabling works, is expected to be £5.4 million and the Music Department will take up occupation by Autumn Term 2016. As the new music school will occupy the site of the old one as well as the site of the laundry and part of the maintenance yard, we have needed to supply the Department with temporary facilities in the Cooper Quad, and a series of practice rooms in the adjacent Cooper Lodge by relocating the language and graduate assistants to rented accommodation at 314, Banbury Road. The laundry has been moved to an extension of the Piggeries which it now shares with the Grounds Department. This last move has allowed the Maintenance Department to move into the space previously allocated to the laundry.

Future Plans Having completed Jubilee House (TSH Architects, 2013), and having started the new music school this year, the School has moved forward with the next plank of its strategic plan – the building of additional teaching facilities. We commissioned the same architectural practice to develop a scheme for a new 10-classroom teaching block in the space bordered by the New Hall, Cowell’s House, the Modern Languages Block, and the Work Block. This scheme has grown so that it has a second phase which involves relocating the Library, and a third that will remodel the New Hall. This project can be seen as the completion of the Quad in line with “Simeon’s Dream.” Those involved in the planning are aware of the sensitivities involved with this site in the heart of the School and the draft plans were submitted for review to the Oxford Design Review Panel. We commissioned Hilary Keenlyside of Bonnar Keenlyside to produce a report on the feasibility of building a 1,000-seat concert hall attached to the new music school on the adjacent Lemon Tree and Jack fm site. The premise was that this would not only be a school facility but also one that we shared with the public, along the lines of the use of The North Wall Arts Centre. Hilary’s principle conclusions were that the Sheldonian Theatre carries enormous prestige and is loved by audiences and promoters alike. They would be unlikely to abandon it

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