Work on new NU music building to begin in May

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Updated: January 20, 2012 10:02AM

Construction of a building on the lakefront of Northwestern University’s Evanston campus that will be the new home of the Bienen School of Music and provide additional space for the School of Communication will begin this spring, university officials announced Friday.

The new facility and an adjacent arts green is expected to cost $117 million, according to Northwestern.

Designed to be a signature building for the University, the new facility will enable the Bienen School to consolidate all of its programs in one campus location for the first time in more than 35 years, Northwestern said.

The new building will be located just south of the school’s Pick-Staiger Concert Hall and connected to the Regenstein Hall of Music on the southern end of Northwestern’s lakefront campus. The five-story structure will be directly east of the Theatre and Interpretation Center with views of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline.

With about 150,000 gross square feet, the new building will include classrooms, teaching labs, academic faculty offices, teaching studios for choral, jazz, opera, piano and voice faculty, practice rooms, student lounges and administrative offices, the release said. There also will be a choral rehearsal/recital room, choral and orchestra libraries, an opera rehearsal/black box theater and a 400-seat recital hall.