This spring, GCSU plans to finish construction on a new music building, located on the corner of Wayne and Montgomery Streets, a short distance from the main campus. The building will provide a dedicated rehearsal space for the music department’s large ensembles, including the choral ensembles, band and orchestra.
According to Don Parker, the chair of the music department, this will be the first music facility built on campus since Porter Hall was constructed in 1939. Since the construction of Porter Hall, the Music Department has gone through many changes both departmentally and in musicality like the return of the music therapy program from the Health Sciences Department in 2020. More than 75 years later, the music department has grown to require more space to accompany modern sound quality and acoustics.
“It will provide us with a larger space that is more sound and more conditioned for what we need,” Parker said. “Obviously, when you try to create music, you want to hear in that space, and you want to make sure that the instruments that you have are maintained as well.”
The new building will include a band and orchestra room, a choir room, practice rooms and studios, storage facilities and a student lounge area. The facilities have been specifically designed for musical purposes with high ceilings, extra thick insulation and climate control features to regulate humidity and moisture levels.
“It will definitely have a more modern look to it than the current facilities we’re in, which is very attractive for recruiting students,” Parker said.
Currently, music students rehearse in a variety of places, including Porter Hall and the McComb building, which was the old bookstore warehouse on Wilkinson Street. While the McComb building has the space required for large ensembles, there have been issues with proper spacing and the building’s condition. The choral ensembles also rehearse on the third floor of Porter Hall, which has very low ceilings that prevent proper sound quality.
“We’ve been kind of scattered in the McComb building and all over the place,” said Meghan Bennett, a junior music education major. “We have really just been needing a space with good practice rooms and acoustics for all of our ensembles to be able to rehearse adequately, and so we’re really excited for this big building.”
In addition to the new rehearsal and practice rooms, students are also looking forward to a dedicated lounge space for socializing outside of class. Much like the Integrated Science Complex, the new music rehearsal building will feature both indoor lounge seating and an outdoor veranda.
“People are really excited about having that lounge space,” said Kelsey Carpenter, a junior music therapy major. “A lot of times, in our current space, people just kind of sit on the edge of the rehearsals, so I think that’ll be something that people really enjoy.”
The new rehearsal building’s planning and construction has been a three-and-a-half-year process, as the music department navigated where to place a large building. The department plans to finish the new building in late spring of 2025, and then spend the summer break purchasing and installing new furniture, sound equipment and instruments before opening the building in the fall of 2025.
“We appreciate the fact that the university is recognizing that we do need these types of spaces in order to provide students with a great experience,” said Parker. “This particular facility is going to allow us to be able to do some things in the future that we have not been able to do in a bigger fashion.”