WCA Weichi Chen spoke at The Architects League of Northern Jersey

January 15, 2011, Montclair State University, NJ – WCA Weichi Chen spoke at the Installation Dinner of The Architects League of Northern Jersey for his work at the Cali School of Music in Montclair State University. The Cali School of Music is an adoptive reuse project completed in January 2010. The new design includes a new 23,000 square-feet, two-storey addition to the original five-storey, 29,000 square-foot structure, for a total of 52,000 square feet.

Exterior addition to the existing 1926 Chapin Hall reorients the main façade to the College Avenue, a major thoroughfare on campus, rather than the quadrangle, where the original entrance was located. The new facility offers a picturesque interpretation of the original Spanish Mission Style and provides a formal gateway to the campus.

The need for superior acoustics required the design team to overcome several challenges posed by the building’s existing tight floor-to-floor heights and older mechanical systems. Practice rooms and teaching studios are designed as a box within a box for acoustical isolation from other rooms. Innovative HVAC design accommodates the low floor to floor height of the existing building for superior sound proofing and optimal humidity and temperature control.

In addition to providing an excellent facility, the design team worked to achieve a rating under the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Sustainable Design Rating System.