Chautauqua, NY

H3 master-planned a new School of Music and Conference Center for the Chautauqua Institution, a 750-acre educational complex in southwestern New York State. The non-profit organization, founded in 1874, occupies a dramatic lakeside site, with many of its buildings designated National Historic Landmarks. It is a forum for discussion of public issues, international relations, literature, and science. It is also a center for the arts, home to its own symphony orchestra, ballet company, conservatory theater, and opera company.

The new School of Music serves Chautauqua’s orchestral, piano, and vocal departments and provides ten rooms for vocal coaching and teaching, ten for instrument teaching, in addition to new administration facilities. H3’s assignment also involved renovation of practice shacks (including one once used by George Gershwin), and three theaters: McKnight Hall, 500-seat Lenna Hall, and Sherwood Studio.

The new conference center is a multiple-use facility housing arts faculty, support staff, and performing and visual artists and their families. It contains 135 guest rooms, a 250-seat music room for performances, seminar rooms, a business center, and board rooms.

CLIENT: Chautauqua Institution
COMPLETION: Phased Implementation 2006
SIZE: School of Music: 31,000 s.f.; Conference Center: 154,000 s.f.
COST: $30 million