Peabody undergoes renovations

Students at Peabody are just now facing what Homewood students have been going through for years now: a Master Plan. The Peabody Plan, undertaken by Quinn Evans | Architects and funded by a variety of donors, will create a more "open" campus at Peabody, balancing the needs of students and faculty with the needs of the public.

The Peabody Institute, an internationally-renowned musical conservatory, is located in one of the best-preserved 19th-century squares in America: Mt. Vernon Place. But the building design has proved less than accommodating to the approximately 40,000 annual visitors, in addition to the thousands of Peabody students.

The proposed construction project involves renovating under-utilized areas of the building, making use of spaces between buildings, clarifying pedestrian pathways throughout the campus and performing maintenance in a number of areas. While Peabody was founded in 1857, the Conservatory building did not open until 1866 and the library until 1878. As a result, Peabody Plan organizers have found that the overall design appears disjointed, and unused gaps between buildings waste valuable space. The proposed Grand Arcade, designed to be the fulcrum of Peabody, will serve to unite the disparate buildings on campus, and will provide a welcoming entrance for visitors.

Currently, the Peabody campus is a gated community. All of the entrances to Peabody are inaccessible, ambiguous, or uninviting, according to Dr. Robert Sirota, director of the Peabody Institute. He would like to see that change.

"We want to make the architecture more user-friendly, while at the same time maintaining security," said Sirota in an interview with the Hopkins Gazette.

The construction, already begun in June of this year, will continue until February 2004, causing inevitable inconveniences for students, staff, and visitors alike. But according to Jennifer Dawson, Senior Project Manager, the Institute is doing its best to "work around" the construction.

"For the next two years there will be jack hammers and loud equipment mixed in with the beautiful sounds made throughout campus," says Dawson.

But according to Dawson, the Institute keeps students and faculty informed of the renovations on a continual basis. To date, the construction is limited to the north and south sides of campus, where corridors and connectors are being built through the existing buildings to allow better access to the campus during the bulk of the construction, which will begin during Christmas break and continue through second semester.

While students at Peabody are currently experiencing few to no inconveniences, the upcoming semester will undoubtedly prove an adventure.

"This will be a challenging time for us all at Peabody," says Sirota. "But we know the results will be worth it."

Sirota has also praised the construction management firm involved with the Peabody Plan.

"So far the construction management firm, Gilbane, has shown great sensitivity to the fact that we are running our programs at full capacity during the construction period," said Sirota.

The creators behind the design have renovated many nationally significant buildings, as well as many important public buildings, such as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Their design for Peabody correlates with their philosophy of preserving the historic character of buildings while making them more efficient and contemporary.

The Institute has expressed satisfaction with the project and its architects. With a budget of $24 million, the plan is nothing short of elaborate. It involves a new 100-seat theater, a 100-seat rehearsal hall, 10 new practice rooms, a gallery, arcade and support spaces.

The fact that Peabody is working to provide public access to its facilities is a sign of its faith in the safety of downtown Baltimore, according to the Mount Vernon Cultural District, a group comprised of various cultural organizations and institutions in the area including Peabody. It has been working on issues such as cultural tourism in the Mount Vernon area. They hope that the Peabody renovations will be a huge step towards the goal of making Mount Vernon a top tourist site.