The new Hurst Hall on the Matthew and Carolyn Bucksbaum Campus.
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The new Hurst Hall on the Matthew and Carolyn Bucksbaum Campus.
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Philanthropist and AMFS lifetime trustee Kay Bucksbaum, with AMFS Board Chair Robert Hurst, cuts the ribbon at the campus dedication.
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Philanthropist and AMFS lifetime trustee Kay Bucksbaum, with AMFS Board Chair Robert Hurst, cuts the ribbon at the campus dedication.
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Hurst Hall provides a rehearsal space for groups ranging from a full orchestra to the brass quintet shown here. During the rest of the year, it serves as Aspen Country Day School’s gymnasium.
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Hurst Hall provides a rehearsal space for groups ranging from a full orchestra to the brass quintet shown here. During the rest of the year, it serves as Aspen Country Day School’s gymnasium.
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During a campus tour, architect Harry Teague speaks about the new cafeteria on the ground level of the Robert Harth building. “The dining hall is the most important building on campus,” he notes, referencing its function as a place for exchanging ideas and socializing. “We took it very seriously.” The large tree trunk, which came from Grand Junction, covers up a steel support column and, says Teague, represents the life tree from ancient Norse mythology. It’s known more colloquially as the “ketchup tree,” thanks to the condiments that surround it.
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During a campus tour, architect Harry Teague speaks about the new cafeteria on the ground level of the Robert Harth building. “The dining hall is the most important building on campus,” he notes, referencing its function as a place for exchanging ideas and socializing. “We took it very seriously.” The large tree trunk, which came from Grand Junction, covers up a steel support column and, says Teague, represents the life tree from ancient Norse mythology. It’s known more colloquially as the “ketchup tree,” thanks to the condiments that surround it.
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Interior designer Karen White, shown here in the lobby of the renovated Hardy administration building, selected the project’s furnishings. A portrait of Matthew and Kay Bucksbaum hangs above the fireplace.
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Interior designer Karen White, shown here in the lobby of the renovated Hardy administration building, selected the project’s furnishings. A portrait of Matthew and Kay Bucksbaum hangs above the fireplace.
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Business at the music school continued as usual throughout the dedication event, as tour groups came upon students practicing throughout the new buildings.
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Business at the music school continued as usual throughout the dedication event, as tour groups came upon students practicing throughout the new buildings.
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Harry Teague explains how practice rooms in the Upper Studio (which also serves as Aspen Country Day School’s middle school) were designed for brass instruments—concrete block walls contain the sound within each space.
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The 1890s-era, Craftsman-style Hardy administration building posed a “difficult structural puzzle,” says architect Harry Teague. “It was so curved at the front that everyone thought that was part of the architecture.” Turns out the curvature was due to age, not design. Now, thanks to an uninterrupted line of sight through the lobby, “you can see the pond on one side and Castle Creek on the other,” adds Teague. “It’s part of what makes this building so delightful.”
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The lines of the new Robert Harth building in the foreground connect in a historically appropriate way to the renovated Hardy administration building behind, which dates from the 1890s. The second stories of the two buildings literally connect via an upper breezeway.
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From the second floor of the Robert Harth building, which houses administrative offices, the view includes the slopes of Deep Temerity at Aspen Highlands in the background.
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The 1890s-era, Craftsman-style Hardy administration building posed a “difficult structural puzzle,” says architect Harry Teague. “It was so curved at the front that everyone thought that was part of the architecture.” Turns out the curvature was due to age, not design. Now, thanks to an uninterrupted line of sight through the lobby, “you can see the pond on one side and Castle Creek on the other,” adds Teague. “It’s part of what makes this building so delightful.”
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Hurst Hall’s intricate acoustic engineering includes interspersed tan panels that diffuse approximately 30 percent of the sound, black fabric panels that absorb another 30 percent, and flat portions of the wall that reflect an additional 30 percent.
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Hurst Hall’s intricate acoustic engineering includes interspersed tan panels that diffuse approximately 30 percent of the sound, black fabric panels that absorb another 30 percent, and flat portions of the wall that reflect an additional 30 percent.
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The lines of the new Robert Harth building in the foreground connect in a historically appropriate way to the renovated Hardy administration building behind, which dates from the 1890s. The second stories of the two buildings literally connect via an upper breezeway.
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From the second floor of the Robert Harth building, which houses administrative offices, the view includes the slopes of Deep Temerity at Aspen Highlands in the background.
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Harry Teague explains how practice rooms in the Upper Studio (which also serves as Aspen Country Day School’s middle school) were designed for brass instruments—concrete block walls contain the sound within each space.
On a classically beautiful Aspen summer day—azure sky dotted with cottony clouds, a steady breeze taking the edge off the recent hot temps—the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) dedicated the final phase of the Matthew and Carolyn Bucksbaum Campus. With the completion in May of three new buildings and a renovated administration center, a project eight years in the making to completely overhaul the previously outdated campus reached fruition. Architect Harry Teague and his team designed the new structures—all of which serve dual purposes, as Aspen Country Day School will use them during the academic year—infusing them with a rhythm and interplay that complements the music now being played within those walls.
Those who spoke at the July 11 ceremony included AMFS Board Chair Robert Hurst, President and CEO Alan Fletcher, Music Director Robert Spano, architect Harry Teague, Aspen Country Day School Head of School Josh Wolman, and AMFS life trustee Carolyn “Kay” Bucksbaum, who received a standing ovation for her and her late husband’s commitment to the project, which included a $25 million gift for the campus reconstruction.
Following the dedication, Teague and Fletcher led groups on tours of the final-phase buildings, as locals marveled over the crisp, contemporary design and sophisticated acoustical engineering. See the photos in the slideshow above and don’t miss our feature on the new campus (along with the Aspen Community School’s new home) in Aspen Sojourner’s midsummer issue.
