the chicago jazz center
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Siegfried Flores
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ARCH 807 + ARCH 715
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Spring 2012
The Chicago Center for Jazz is, essentially, a Jazz Music Hall located in Chicago, Illinois, whose secondary function, aside from being a performance center, is to act as an instrument for sound. The idea for designing a Jazz Music Hall was conceived from my original thesis question, “How can the translations between music and architecture be used as a tool to inform and articulate the experience or sensory perception of sound and space?” That being said, my main goal was to design an architectural composition driven by music and sound, in a holistic manner, in order to emphasize on the occupant's aural perception and experience of space. The Chicago Center for Jazz is a 24,000 square foot Jazz Music Hall in Chicago, Illinois, whose main purpose is dedicated to the performance, preservation, and education of Chicago Jazz. The project came about out of a necessity for a permanent venue and center for Chicago Jazz. Currently, Chicago Jazz musicians perform in local bars and clubs, as well as utilizing the Chicago Cultural Center's performance hall, whose design is not necessarily specified for Jazz acoustics. However, Chicago does have the Jazz Fest, an annual 4-day concert series of Chicago Jazz, taking place in the Pertillo Music Shell in Grant Park. The Chicago Jazz Center will be an institution for jazz in Chicago located diagonally across from the Petrillo Music Shell, at the Southwest corner of Jackson Drive. and Columbus Drive. Chicago's land use has the site situated between Lake Michigan to the East and downtown Chicago to the West. The site will most likely be approached by foot from the nearest CTA station located just ¼ of a mile away at Wabash and Adams St. It can also be reached by taxi, bus, car, bike, etc, from any of the major streets that surround the area. The nearby cultural venues will also help to bring in pedestrian traffic to the site, using the numerous paths and walkways throughout the park. The site is located along a linear axis along with Frank Gehry's Pritzker Pavilion and Renzo Piano's Art Institute of Chicago, sitting just South of the Art Institute. Grant Park is relevant to the thesis because of its diversity of sounds impacting on the site. The site receives sounds from Lake Michigan, the park itself, as well as downtown Chicago. Surrounding sound or “soundscape” such as wind, trees, cars, people, the lake, and the city, will also be a major factor, affecting the instrumental aspect of The Chicago Jazz Center. Jazz music is known to be improvisational, so it never sounds the same. The “soundscape” within Chicago can also be considered improvisational because it too, is always different. These different surrounding sounds contribute to the overall “music” of the city of Chicago. The site is currently an open park space, surrounded by trees, planned for development according to the Chicago Department of Zoning. An effort to keep the current natural landscape such as trees and topography, will be attempted so as not to disturb the open park aspect currently associated with the site. Additionally, working with the site's adjacencies must be addressed in order to create a successful integration into the park. The programmatic framework for The Chicago Jazz Center will be based within a Jazz Hall with acoustics designed specifically for Jazz. Each of these spaces are grouped into five main parts, Front of House, Performance, Black Box, Back of House, and Administration. The Jazz Hall will include the primary space, the main Performance Hall, with audience seating of up to 900 people, and a 700 sf stage. This space will be designed specifically to enhance the acoustic characteristics of jazz, and the audience seating will be stacked and in-the-round, so that no seat is more than 60 feet away from the performer on stage, preserving the intimacy between jazz performer and listener. A smaller 300 seat Black-Box Theater that doubles as a rehearsal room is also included. Additional spaces contained in the Front of House are, a public entry and lobby, ticket and information booths, as well as a cafe serving as a venue for smaller, casual performances, as well as required restrooms. The Back of House performance space includes, the dressing rooms, a green room, performer's own entrance, storage, and control room. A recording studio will also be present for jazz artists to record their music. The Administrative spaces for business will include two private offices, four open office spaces, a conference room, a staffing lounge, as well as the building's Support spaces, for both mechanical and maintenance.
Siegfried Flores
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ARCH 807 + ARCH 715
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Spring 2012
Front of House 3.1 Lobby/Public Entry 3.2 Ticket/Info Booth 3.3 Coat Room 3.4 CafÊ/small performance space 3.5-6 Men’s and Women’s WC 3.7 Audience Seating
+-1,000 sf 200 sf 600 sf 300 sf 600 sf 900 seats
Performance 3.8 Stage/Performance Space 3.9 Black Box Theater (300 seats)
700 sf 4,000 sf
Back of House 3.10 Green Room 3.11-12 Dressing Room/WCs 3.13 Performer’s Entrance 3.14 Storage 3.15 Control Room 3.16 Recording Studio
200 sf 500 sf 500 sf 500 sf 150 sf 2,000 sf
Administration ͗Ǥ͕͚nj͕͛ ”‹˜ƒ–‡ Ƽ…‡• Č‹Í–ČŒ Í—Ç¤Í•ÍœÇŚÍ–Í• ’‡Â? Ƽ…‡• Č‹Í˜ČŒ 3.22 Conference Room ͗Ǥ͖͗ Â–ÂƒĆĄ ‘—Â?‰‡
240 sf 260 sf 350 sf 300 sf
Support 3.24 Building Mechanical 3.25 Maintenance Utility
1,000 sf 300 sf
Circulation Sound Corridors 3.26 Interior 3.27 Exterior
5,000 sf
Total
+-24,100 sf
Siegfried Flores
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ARCH 807 + ARCH 715
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Spring 2012
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