Groton Hill Music Center | Transformative Timber Design

Location

Massachusetts, USA

Client

Groton Hill Music Center

Architect

Epstein Joslin + Picardy Architects

Project Status

Completed in 2022

When Groton Hill Music Center embarked on their project for a new, world-class musical performance and education venue, their ambition was to create a beautiful gathering space for the entire community. The facility was to offer outstanding acoustic performance, and also integrate with the natural beauty of its rural setting. Timber was selected as the predominant material and, at the time of construction, this was the largest mass timber project in New England.

Odeh Engineers (now part of WSP) designed the structure of the music center, which includes a 1000-seat concert hall and a 300-seat recital hall; performance and teaching spaces for a renowned community music school; and a jazz club. We collaborated with the client, architects and acousticians from the earliest concept stages to achieve the visually stunning solution that also performs to an elite level acoustically and brings the transformative power of music to people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.

The uniqueness of this building lies in how the structure was designed and the materials used as an important part of the architecture and function of the building. Usually, the structure is hidden from sight, but here it is exposed to become part of the acoustical performance.

Lance Aleksiewicz Project Manager, WSP in the US

Lance Aleksiewicz Project Manager, WSP in the US

A first for mass timber in performance spaces

Fundamental to the architecture is the exposed wooden structure. Southern Yellow Pine was selected for numerous reasons: for its warmth and ambiance; to reference the site’s former use as an orchard and the region’s agricultural buildings; and for its sustainable qualities.

A key challenge for our engineers was the sheer quantity of mass timber used, unprecedented in a performance space such as this, with straight and curved glulam columns, beams and decking. These form a major part of the structure. For example, the layout of the high arching columns in the concert hall was determined by their interaction with the acoustic performance of the space. The columns in the school and lobby spaces are tree-like structures branching out to support overhanging canopies above gathering places.

Optimizing the hybrid structure

While timber is used for the visible elements of the structure, its properties are enhanced by steel and concrete. In the concert hall, the exposed part of the roof structure is formed from laminated timber arched elements and the hidden upper portion of the trusses spanning the space is steel. This blend is necessary to support the weight of the roof, whose curved surface is lined with concrete as required for acoustic performance. We extended this concrete and connected it to the vertical elements of the structure to distribute the seismic loads and provide adequate lateral stiffness.

Creating innovative design and analysis tools

The curved geometries and unique shapes of the building were outside the scope of the software typically available for timber design. We developed new software to design mass timber elements and their connections in ways that we had never done before, enabling us to use the most efficient combination of building materials rather than limiting our design to a single material. Our innovative digital modelling and analysis tools could not only handle the curved member design for the timber but could also integrate the use of steel and concrete in the hybrid structure.

Less than a minute’s-worth of US tree growth

The vast amount of wood incorporated into the structure, together with the hybrid construction approach, gives the project a lower environmental impact than conventional construction. The project team estimated the overall glulam construction to be approximately 1 million board-feet of timber, sequestering over 2,300 tons of carbon dioxide from the environment. The 300-seat recital hall alone required approximately 136,000 board-feet of timber to build its glulam columns, beams and decking. It is estimated that the total amount of wood used on the project grew in less than one minute (considering the growth of American forests as a whole).

A masterpiece of collaboration

Designing a world-class facility to meet the diverse needs of a wide-spread rural community called for a masterpiece of collaboration.

While working with the architects to create spaces where the structure harmonized with the architecture, we were also collaborating with acoustic experts to ensure that the structures would provide exactly the right sound conditions, whether in the concert hall or the more intimate recital spaces and rehearsal rooms. “We talked to different users to understand how they would experience the building,” says David Odeh, principal in charge of the project for Odeh Engineers/WSP. “Collaborating with the architect, we created a virtual reality model of the concert hall early in the design phase to give the leader of the orchestra and other musicians an immersive experience of the space and obtain their feedback. Meanwhile we were also thinking about the music students and their teachers by ensuring soundproofing between practice rooms.”

Our involvement in the conceptual design stage and our complete understanding of its goals enabled excellent collaboration from the outset between all the project stakeholders. “A particular example is our work with the glulam manufacturer,” explains Aleksiewicz, “We designed everything with their support and guidance on how glulam members are fabricated, detailed and erected. Engaging the glulam fabricator early in the design stage, rather than waiting until the design was complete, was key to the success of the project.”

What makes this venue special is that it’s accessible to anyone who performs, learns or enjoys music; from world-renowned artists, to amateur musicians, to children learning their first instruments. In every respect, Groton Hill is a precious commodity for the rural community it serves.

David Odeh Principal in charge of the project, WSP in the US

David Odeh Principal in charge of the project, WSP in the US

A pastoral symphony to delight the senses

The technical mastery of this structure combines with the architecture to create a unique relationship between the building, the music, the people and the countryside in a pastoral symphony that delights all the senses.

The timber structure evoking the trees in the surrounding countryside integrates with features that blend the outdoor and indoor environments. For example, the concert room has huge sliding doors opening onto outdoor seating on the lawn, while the glass-walled stage in the recital hall looks out over meadows giving views that change with the seasons.

Image gallery copyrights: Robert Benson Photography

The natural beauty of wood is visually pleasing while the precise ‘tuning’ of the structure is designed to create the optimum acoustics for performance and listening. The combination creates an uplifting ambiance, both inspirational and welcoming, for both musicians and audiences.

As Alan Joslin, the Principal-in-Charge of Architectural Design pointed out, “At the heart of this project is a close collaboration between architect, acoustician and structural engineer based on a shared commitment to an honesty in expression of purpose, aesthetics, structure and finish. What appears to be a sculpture of glue laminated timber and wood decking, has been informed by the strict demands of world class natural acoustics, and the efficiently ordered use of structure for stability and visual ornamentation. And from the architect’s standpoint, it was a joy to work in the atmosphere of enthusiasm for these goals that David Odeh and his team brought to every level of our work together.”

What makes Groton Hill Music Center Stand Out