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Summary

Description

Basil Spence and Partners, 1963 (Peter Ferguson, partner-in-charge and principal architect; Richard Cassidy; T Harley Haddow & Partners, engineers). Single-storey Modernist music department block consisting of tall roughly square-plan orchestral hall at N adjoined to 7-bay, rectangular-plan teaching room block running N-S; part of multi-period school campus. Black brick basecourse (stepped to E elevation), painted brick in stretcher bond with saw tooth brickwork panel between windows, rendered to orchestral hall. Oversailing flat roof with painted fascia and timber boarding to eaves. Full-height glazing separated by deep rectangular timber mullions to E elevation and central section of W elevation of orchestral hall block; predominantly flat arched openings with metal-framed windows; slate cills.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: 2-leaf timber and glazed doors to N elevation, with wide full-height glazed sidelight to right. Glazed clearstorey to N and S elevations of orchestral hall with deep laminated redwood beams roof structure extended to exterior to create mullions. Brickwork taken above roofline to S elevation, with cut out at centre with roof oversailing to form square cantitlevered canopy above 2-leaf, timber and glazed doors entrance doors.

Predominantly original fixed-pane window with top-hung hopper.

INTERIOR (seen 2008): quarry tiled floor to entrance vestibule, full-height glazing with timber mullions separating entrance corridor from orchestral hall. Orchestral hall with deep laminated redwood beams, cedar boarding ceiling, projecting brick patterns to walls and timber floor. 10 practice rooms with non-parallel brick walls. Timber doors with original fixtures to orchestral hall.

Statement of Special Interest

Glenalmond College Music Practice and Teaching Rooms is an unaltered, elegant modern building in a multi-period, but predominantly 19th century, school campus. This Perthshire boarding school was deliberately established in a rural setting, and the fully glazed wall to the orchestra hall and its associated glazed corridor take advantage of the natural surroundings. Special attention has been paid to the acoustic properties of the design. Practice rooms have angled walls and the orchestral hall has interior projecting brick detailing to avoid direct sound reflection.

Spence's partner and former pupil of the school, Peter Ferguson, was responsible for this design. His precedent was Arne Jacobson's extension to the Louisiana art gallery near Elsinore, with the corridor space at the music school intended to serve as gallery space for paintings. Ferguson was responsible for a wide variety of work including housing, universities, airports public buildings and hospitals. He believed in a completely integrated approach to his work and he 'embraced the problems of clients, designers and contractors with a sureness that won admiration'.

Glenalmond College, formerly Trinity College, was founded in 1841 by the Episcopalian church to provide education for Scottish ordinands outwith of Scottish universities. It was one of the first Victorian public schools in Britain and its architecture is inspired by the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. The main building, a large collegiate gothic structure built round 3 quadrangles, dates from 1843 (see separate listing), with ancillary buildings added from the late nineteenth century. In 1954 Basil Spence & Partners were commissioned to make alterations to the original chapel. These included seating provision, a new gallery at the west end above the ante-chapel, and the restoration of all existing woodwork. The practice was later commissioned to create the Music Practice and Teaching Room block and an extension to the residential building, Reid House.

Sir Basil Spence was one of Scotland's most accomplished and prolific 20th century architects. He leapt to prominence during the Festival of Britain in 1951 as chief architect for the Exhibition of Industrial Power in Glasgow. Some of his most renowned works include Coventry Cathedral and the British Embassy in Rome. The practice was also profuse in the design of educational buildings, particularly for universities. The practice was responsible for the new university campus of University of Sussex (1959-1974) as well as the redevelopment of existing campuses such as the University of Southampton (1959-73) and George Square for the University of Edinburgh (see separate listings).

Listed as part of the Sir Basil Spence thematic listing survey (2009-11).

References

Bibliography

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