Arch 7010: New Orleans Music School

The proposed Roots of Music Center, located on the abandoned Wheatley School site, reclaims the existing school building and forms new spaces for the program’s need for marching and instruction. Reacting to the flat, broad, and elevated structure of the 1950’s elementary school, the proposal creates two heavy vertical bars that stretch perpendicular to the Wheatley’s horizontal momentum, holding classrooms and an indoor marching space. Together they form an enclosed courtyard for private outdoor marching band practices, while also creating an identity for the Roots of Music Program that can be seen from a distance. The idea to constantly march throughout the site informed the spatial organization of both interior and exterior space; a twenty-foot wide corridor weaves through, over, and under both new and existing buildings creating dynamic sequence of spaces for the band.  The proposed design allows for the building to not be in opposition to the march, but instead reinforces the role of marching within the Roots of Music through its form.