Music centre’s vertical campus is pitch perfect

Project: Ute and William K. Bowes, Jr. Centre for Performing Arts 

Award: Education – Higher education and research facilities, Silver, 2022

Location: San Francisco, California, USA

Architect: Mark Cavagnero Associates  

Client: The San Francisco Conservatory of Music

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Bowes Centre is designed as a "vertical campus" that incorporates housing, dining, classrooms, rehearsal rooms, performances spaces, faculty offices and a radio station under one roof. 
The non-profit institution had three main goals for the building: to provide safe and affordable housing for its students in the heart of San Francisco, to provide world-class music teaching facilities with state-of-the-art equipment and acoustics, and to provide an open and inviting building to welcome the public. Student housing suites and common-area spaces for students and faculty are dispersed throughout the twelve-story building, providing housing for 400 music students in the heart of the arts district. 

Design highlights

Unlike typical performance halls that are set deep within a building, the main recital halls at the Bowes Centre are wrapped in glass and highly visible from the exterior. The aim, that by showcasing the art occurring within, the public will be drawn to the hundreds of mostly free performances SFCM students hold each year. 
The central lobby is a porous, community-oriented entrance to the ground floor, which is anchored by three major spaces - a café, an informal student lounge and a glass-enclosed recital hall. On the top floor, a double-height performance space cantilevers over Van Ness Avenue, making a visual connection across the street to Davies Symphony Hall and the iconic dome of City Hall.  

Photo credit: Tim Griffith Photography, Kyle Jeffers