BRATTLEBORO — The new Brattleboro Music Center has won an award from the American Institute of Architects.
The building on Blanche Moyse Way was honored with an AIA Maine Award for Design Excellence at the annual meeting of AIA Maine on May 16.
A jury of five architects awarded the BMC project a “Citation Award for Adaptive Reuse” with the following comments:
“This project is a great example of how to do more with less to elevate the function and mission of an important organization. Integrating an existing school building and seamlessly enveloping it with a series of new volumes, the project creates a very cohesive, clear, functional, and understated collection of spaces. The material palette is extremely spare and economical yet beautiful.”
Originally the site of the Francis Hicks Memorial School, the building was constructed in 1959 across from Living Memorial Park. After the Hicks School closed in the mid-1980s, it was used by Christian Heritage School until the 2000s, when the Winston Prouty Center moved in.
BMC took over the space when the Prouty Center moved the former Austine School and committed to renovating and adding to the building to create a new music center.
The redesigned building was done by Scott Simons Architects of Portland, Maine, with DEW Construction Corp. as the primary contractor.
BMC's new home includes administrative offices, an array of practice rooms, a music library, a percussion studio, a multi-use classroom, and a light-filled recital hall. Connected to the music school by a canopied walkway is a performance-quality auditorium.