The Center for the Arts (CFA) will be the focal point of artistic development and exhibition on USM’s Portland campus, enabling the School of Music to grow and provide its students with the highest quality acoustical and technical practice and rehearsal spaces for music education and training. As a new home for the School of Music, the CFA will leverage its prominent exposure—toward both the central campus and the broader community—as a catalyst for engagement not only with music, but also with its sister arts; this intersection of the arts is most clearly manifest in the central Gallery space, a prominently featured forum for the exhibition of visual arts and other media. The Gallery traverses the building from east to west, serving as an enticing conduit between the campus and the city of Portland, with large glass façades at both entries that reveal the interior’s abundant use of wood, making the space feel warm and welcoming, and highlighting its potential as a public amenity for the local community. Its immediate proximity to the Performance and Rehearsal halls entrances makes it an ideal pre-function and special events space, and a comfortable hangout for students. Other key elements include a 200-seat Performance Hall for recitals, a large, flexible Arts Lab with telescoping seating, a large rehearsal hall, faculty studios, classrooms, and administrative offices.

Project Data

Active
39,500 gsf

Project Highlights

200-seat Performance Hall
Rehearsal Hall with telescoping seats
Arts Lab
Great Hall/Gallery
Percussion Studio
Piano Studio
Flex studio

Collaborators

Associate Architect: Oak Point Associates
Structural, MEP, Civil Engineer: Oak Point Associates
Lighting: Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design
Acoustics/AV: Jaffe Holden Acoustics, Inc.
Theater: Theatre Projects