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HGA Designs Marlboro Music’s Rehearsal Studios at the Classical World’s “Most Coveted Retreat”

Marlboro Music called on HGA to design the new Reich Rehearsal Building & Music Library, capturing the spirit of Marlboro in the Vermont Green Mountains.

Marlboro Music, Reich Hall

Since 1951, generations of the world’s most talented classical musicians have come together to participate in Marlboro Music, a non-profit, seven-week summer festival where young musicians collaborate alongside renowned artists in an environment removed from the pressures of performance. Each season, the music festival takes over the Potash Hill campus in the foothills of Vermont’s Green Mountains. Marlboro Music encompasses not only music but a communal way of life where musicians, staff, their spouses, and children share meals, seminars, chores, and social events. The New Yorker magazine calls Marlboro Music “the classical world’s most coveted retreat” and participants have included such celebrated musicians as cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Pablo Casals, pianist Mitsuko Uchida, and violinist Joshua Bell. Marlboro Music is located on the beautiful Potash Hill campus in the town of Marlboro.

Over the years, the campus’ aging farm buildings became less than ideal for music rehearsal and archival needs. Marlboro Music called on international multidisciplinary design firm HGA to provide the festival participants, staff, and attendees with a transformational project that best serves the needs of 21st-century musicians and the music itself. Their design of the new Jerome & Celia Bertin Reich Rehearsal Building & Music Library (Reich Hall) stays true to the spirit of Marlboro and the simple, country ethos of Southern Vermont, while providing much-needed modern rehearsal spaces, a music library, administrative offices, common areas, and more.

HGA’s award-winning designer, Joan Soranno, FAIA, and Marlboro had a proven working relationship, previously collaborating on five cottages for visiting senior musicians (2014) and a residence hall for students (2020). Co-led by her partner, John Cook, FAIA, the design team worked closely with several key stakeholders at Marlboro Music and Marlboro College (which owned the property at that time) to identify key goals for the project, the uppermost being sustainability and the integration of spaces into the surrounding campus vernacular, forest, and mountains. Musicians were also involved in the process, including world-renowned pianists Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss who are co-artistic directors of the Marlboro Music Festival.

“We had a need and vision in mind for the additions to our campus,” said Philip Maneval, Manager, Marlboro Music. “Bringing in HGA and Joan Soranno once again was an easy decision. Their beautiful design, thoughtfully integrated into the natural surroundings of our historic campus, will ensure Marlboro Music can continue to provide talented musicians a place for great music, learning, culture, and community for another 70 years.”

Marlboro Music, Reich Hall

The design for Reich Hall was inspired by a Cape Cod cottage. Born of necessity with an aesthetic of restraint, this simple gabled form is closely tied to Marlboro’s identity and served as the project’s design template. The building’s small footprint, sloped roofs, compact volumes, and local materials reinforce Marlboro Music’s place within the lush rolling hills and streams of the Green Mountains. The building itself is nestled into the hillside, with the second floor relating to the upper campus and the first floor aligning with the lower campus.

A fundamental philosophy at Marlboro is for musicians and their families to work and play together. Personal and professional lives are fully integrated, with musicians playing together during the day and families coming together to dine and socialize for meals and in the evening. Because Marlboro is a summer festival, designers created a green roof and courtyard to bring musicians and their families together for events, celebrations, and casual interactions. 

Marlboro Music, Reich Hall

Marlboro is home to one of the world’s largest collections of chamber music — over 10,000 scores — and required a library to help archive and preserve these works, and provide a room for study and browsing. The new Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation Library includes archive storage; seminar seating for researchers, musicians, and students; and flexible work areas for two librarians. Climate control, fire protection, lighting, and security were all critical when designing this space. 

Sustainably Sound

Reich Hall relies on various sustainability strategies to continue Marlboro’s environmental stewardship, resulting in sustainable buildings starting with their initial design through to the intended longevity. Despite the exceedingly low-tech appearance of the new building, behind the scenes is a sophisticated strategy that includes LED lighting, a passive solar gains strategy, a green roof that can be enjoyed as an outdoor terrace for events, and operable windows providing natural light, ventilation, and thermal control. An energy-efficient geothermal well field serves water-to-water heat pumps located in the adjacent Residence Hall and shared with Reich Hall. These units provide both chilled and hot water simultaneously as required by the radiant floor and fan coil systems. The use of water for primary heating and cooling greatly increases the performance capacity, reducing the transportation energy required.

Harmony in the resources

The project needed to withstand all seasons with Vermont’s cold, snowy winters. Long-lasting, durable, and low-maintenance materials were chosen, including standing seam metal roofs, heavy-duty snow guards, and cedar siding. Best practice standards were used to select materials with low/no-VOC content, and products with Environmental Product Declarations and/or have additional third-party certifications for air quality, recycled content, or life cycle analyses.

Marlboro Music, Reich Hall

Beauty was also a vital consideration, inspiring an interior palette of natural materials. The wood chosen for rehearsal rooms enhances both the acoustics and ambiance of the spaces. The building’s wood wall structure and interior finishes also help reduce embodied carbon and increase its energy performance. This focus on natural and responsible materials harmonizes with the surrounding landscape and simple agrarian vernacular of the rest of campus.

In concert with nature

From the outset, Reich Hall had to meet Vermont’s ACT 250 criteria – legislation enacted in 1970 to preserve Vermont’s fragile environment and natural resources; helping establish Marlboro Music’s place within the lush Vermont ecosystem and responsibly mitigating the project’s impact on its picturesque site. 

The landscape design was part of a comprehensive vision for sustainability and stewardship of this distinct place. Native plantings – with no fertilizer or pesticides – are abundant and the natural boundaries of the surrounding forests are maintained as if the new building always inhabited the space. 40% of the total site square footage and 71% of the total planting area were sown with pollinator-supportive species. Minimal site lighting preserves the awe-inspiring dark skies in this rural setting and embraces the principles of responsible outdoor lighting.

Marlboro Music, Reich Hall

The project contributes to a healthy watershed by providing stormwater quality close to the source using three bioretention areas and mimicking existing site pre-development hydrology through the infiltration basin. All three areas collect stormwater from the driveway, courtyard, and portions of the roof which is then filtered by specially planted vegetation to remove sediment and pollutants before it flows into a closed drainage system.

The impact of the project has been significant for Marlboro. Besides providing an inspiring, serene place to play and experience music, the new Reich Hall and its flexible rehearsal/classrooms, library, lobby, courtyard, and green roof provide new, vibrant areas for students and musicians to gather, socialize, and study. Economically, the project’s advanced sustainable strategies have exceeded AIA 2030 standards and helped the school save money and achieve its goal of being good stewards of the natural environment.

With the completion of Reich Hall, Marlboro has world-class rehearsal spaces to host the immense talent that visits the campus each year. For five weeks each summer, Marlboro offers concerts for the public, drawing interest and visitors from the nearby Brattleboro community and the greater northeast region. Concert-goers experience performances by well-known, established musicians in tandem with young artists just embarking on their careers, continuing Marlboro Music’s egalitarian spirit and legacy. 

Marlboro Music, Reich Hall

“Working with Marlboro Music once again has been a true honor,” said Soranno. “Reich Hall’s architecture embodies the intrinsic link between music and space, and the universal impulse to use both to create a sense of rootedness within nature. The celebration of music, creativity, and community that happens across campus and in and around these new buildings is a joy to experience.”

HGA’s arts and cultural work spans almost seventy years and is known nationwide. Projects include the new entry pavilion for the Walker Art Center; Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum, which received the 2014 AIA Institute Honor Award for Architecture and the 2013 American Society of Landscape Architects Award of Excellence; The Soraya at Cal State University Northridge; and Capital One Hall at Capital One Center in Tysons, Virginia.

Project Participants

Architect: HGA

Interior Design: HGA

Engineer – Structural: HGA

Engineer – MEP: HGA

Landscape Architecture: HGA

Engineer – Civil: CHA Consulting, Inc.

General Contractor: Courtland Construction

Acoustics: Kvernstoen, Rönnholm & Associates, Inc.

Historical Consultant: Vermont Property Preservation Consultants

About HGA

HGA is a national interdisciplinary design firm committed to making a positive, lasting impact for our clients and communities through research-based, holistic solutions. We believe that great design requires a sense of curiosity—forming deep insight into our clients, their contexts, and the human condition. We are a collective of over 1000 architects, engineers, interior designers, planners, researchers, and strategists. Our practice spans multiple markets, including corporate, cultural, education, local and federal government, healthcare, and science and technology. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.