 The Wheeler School serves a 1,000-student population, grades Pre-K&ndash;12. ABA completed a campus master plan, identifying underutilized spaces for construction on the bounded urban campus, and subsequently designed multiple academic buildings, including the award-winning Nulman Lewis Student Center that links two historic structures and now serves as the campus gateway. The center includes a caf&eacute;, classrooms, and collaborative spaces for learning and gathering. ABA also designed The Wheeler School`s new Gilder Center for the Arts, accommodating assemblies, music performances, practice spaces, and classrooms. The Gilder Center connects to historic Wheeler Hall, which houses a renovated black box theatre and fine arts studios. 

Wheeler School, Nulman Lewis Student Center

 The New Britain Museum of American Art is one of Connecticut`s great cultural treasures. Set in a landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, NBMAA supports a growing collection of American art, and innovative public programs. ABA`s master plan first explored the potential of the current and alternate sites for expansion. ABA examined audience, program requirements, collection growth, and conservation and storage needs. Subsequently, ABA completed a new 43,000-square-foot gallery and education building connected to the museum`s original historic house. Scaled for its residential setting, the new design supports exhibitions, visitor services, education, lectures, and community programs. The new building offers views to the adjacent park and incorporates gardens and outdoor terraces as gathering areas. This design vocabulary joins interconnected, domestically scaled massing with a reductive materials vocabulary: Kasota limestone, metal, glass, and wood. ABA`s second expansion, completed in 2015, accommodates additional offices, education spaces and galleries for the museum`s growing collection and program needs. NBMAA received design awards from the American Institute of Architects New England Chapter and the Boston Society of Architects. 

New Britain Museum of American Art

 This museum houses a collection of Northwest Coastal Native American art, an extensive Chinese art collection, and other European and Classical art. It is the seventh oldest museum in the United States and the oldest museum in the Pacific Northwest. The Evan H. Roberts Sculpture Mall is a public plaza and outdoor gallery consisting of three elements: an open forecourt, enclosed sculpture roof terrace, and public passageway. The Sculpture Mall`s material vocabulary suggests transparency while delineating a precise and secure space for display. Moveable platforms with mounts for temporary walls provide curatorial flexibility. Community access was of particular interest in the project`s development, as it is located in the former right of way for a public street. Situated in an urban context, the site posed the challenge of enabling access from the adjacent street while ensuring security. The desire to keep the sculpture terraces visually connected after closing hours conflicted with a concern for the art collection. The perimeter design resolved this issue by providing a secure structure with visual permeability from the adjacent street and walkway. 

Portland Art Museum Center for Modern and Contemporary Art

This 150,500-square-foot, four-building complex establishes a new precinct for interdisciplinary economics research, teaching, conferences, and global outreach on the University of Chicago`s campus in the Hyde Park-Kenwood Historical District. The project includes the adaptive re-use of a former seminary to create a modern university setting, preserving historically significant spaces and repurposing them as unique academic resources. A new research pavilion connects to the seminary and two renovated historic houses, reclaiming a back lot as a new campus enclave. The landscape design transforms and pedestrianizes a city street, extending the campus quad and knitting Saieh Hall into the campus fabric. Saieh Hall has received planning and design awards at both local and national levels, including the Frank Lloyd Wright Award from AIA Illinois, an Honor Award from the Boston Society of Architects, Honor Awards for Excellence in Planning and Excellence in Architecture from the Society for College and University Planning, and a Design Award from AIA New England, and a Platinum Reconstruction Award from Building Design+Construction.

University of Chicago / Department of Economics and Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics

 The award-winning Carl A. Fields Center serves as a campus and community resource for the study and discussion of issues of equality and commonality. The project included the renovation and adaptive reuse of a campus landmark companioned with a contemporary new structure. The restored building offers community tutorial facilities, a library and resource center, seminar and program rooms, a caf&eacute;, and staff offices. The addition offers a new entry, catering kitchen, and an auditorium designed for music, lectures, conferences, and special events. The Carl A. Fields Center renovation and addition received numerous awards, including a BSA Education Facilities Design Award, a BSA Citation Award for Design Excellence, an AIA New England Citation Award for Design Excellence, and an AIA New Jersey Built Design Honor Award. 

Princeton University / Carl A Fields Center

 The award-winning renovation and expansion of the Music Building consolidates dispersed academic resources, revitalizes a prominent 19th-century landmark, and provides new common spaces for faculty and students. The completed project serves as a model for the compatibility of historical and contemporary design expression. Equal in size to the existing structure, the addition extends the building`s massing, materiality, rhythms, and proportions. The most acoustically critical programs, including classrooms, recital and practice rooms, recording studios, and faculty offices, are housed in the addition. The Penn Music Building addition received a SCUP /AIA-CAE Excellence in Architecture Addition or Renovation Merit Award, a BSA Citation Award for Design Excellence, a Preservation Alliance Achievement Grand Jury Award, and a Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Award. 

University of Pennsylvania, Music Building

 According to Peter Vanderwarker, "the design of the jail became a model for prisons built all over the United States in the last half of the 19th century. The building featured fireproof construction, with a central administration block and four radiating wings that allowed ventilation and light to reach every cell. The prison also included large open communal work spaces and level, well-drained exercise yards. It was used continuously as a jail until its closing in 1990. Although it looks primitive by today&rsquo;s standards, it was a great step forward for its time. The thick, rusticated granite walls of the Charles Street Jail might remind one of the State Street Block, a sturdy warehouse that sits on State Street right next to the Custom House Tower. Both were designed by Gridley J.F. Bryant, who also designed Boston&rsquo;s Old City Hall." 

 The national historic landmark, was transformed into a new four-star luxury hotel on its prominent site overlooking the Charles River. Through restoration, reuse and reinvention, Cambridge Seven Associates with Ann Beha Architects designed the obsolete structure to be reborn as a vital commercial development incorporating historically significant portions of the building, and integrated into the urban fabric of its Beacon Hill neighborhood. Developed by Carpenter &amp; Company, The Liberty Hotel is a full service hotel including 298 guest rooms, a conference facility, ballroom, health club, lounge, restaurants and attractive amenities. According to Peter Vanderwarker, "given the old jail&rsquo;s pioneering of inmate health, there&rsquo;s some justice in the fact that part of it will become an outpatient care center for women, children, and cancer patients. The remaining three wings of the cross-shaped prison will be restored as the lobby, restaurants, and guest rooms of a $75 million, 300-room hotel and conference center being developed by Carpenter and Co." 

Liberty Hotel at Charles Street Jail

Gary Johnson was the principle designed for the Liberty Hotel in Boston. The project took a building that was once used for prisoners, and made a beautiful 4 star hotel.

 Mary Eddy Baker was an American author, teacher and religious leader. The Library gives the public access to the original materials of Mary Baker. 

O Esto Photography, Jonathan Hillyer

Esto Photography, Jonathan Hillyer

Mary Eddy Baker Library

Ann Beha from Ann Beha Architects talks about her project.

 The New England Conservatory of Music is the oldest independent school of music in the United States. Located in Boston`s Fenway district, NEC`s campus occupies 2.5 acres and includes the internationally-known Jordan Hall. Ann Beha Architects has completed conceptual design for two new buildings, a Student Life / Performance Center and an Academic Center. The project accommodates 200,000 sf of program, including student housing, dining and social spaces, the NEC library, practice and performance facilities, an opera workshop, and extensive campus landscape upgrades. 

the Conservatory

New England Conservatory of Music / Student Life, Performance and Academic Center

Tony Woodcock, the President of the NEC, talks about quality and variety of musicianship at the conservatory. 

Ann Beha talks about the architecture of the New England Conservatory, and her firm's additions to the area. 

 The Emerald Necklace Conservancy, dedicated to protecting, restoring, and promoting the Olmsted designed Park System, is newly housed in a unique Park resource. Only 1,400 sf, this project transformed H.H. Richardson`s Stony Brook Gatehouse into a new headquarters for the Conservancy and a new resource for the community. The design provides areas for information and interpretive displays, and a workplace and gathering space for meetings, education, and volunteer activities. &ldquo;This project was a balance between time, budget, program and design and has resulted in an open and balanced space that is not only functional but also very flexible.&rdquo; - James Smith AIA, LEED AP, Architect 

Emerald Necklace Conservancy

 The master plan began with a comprehensive building assessment, addressing architectural, structural, mechanical, plumbing, fire protection, and electrical components, as well as access and code requirements. ABA worked with MHS staff to evaluate functions, programs, use of space, and future growth requirements. The long-term space needs plan supported the Society`s goal of making its resources more accessible to the public and recognized the challenge of housing its expanding collections on a confined urban site. ABA identified a four-phase program of work to completely upgrade the building and allow the Society to remain operational throughout construction. The work included exterior envelope restoration, as well as improvement of technical services, administrative and editorial offices, and public areas. The building was made universally accessible. The project renewed historic the reading rooms that double as conference space, introduced climate control and infrastructure upgrades into the stack areas, and created high-security storage with appropriate fire protection systems. Conservation laboratories were updated. Renovations to historic rooms created galleries, seminar rooms, and space for receptions. 

Massachussetts Historical Society

 The main building of the Cambridge Public Library is an historic library building at 449 Broadway. Built in 1888, its land and full construction funding were provided by Frederick H. Rindge, a Cambridge native and philanthropist. It was added to the National Historic Register in 1982. A $90 million expansion and renovation of the library, led by the Boston architectural firms William Rawn Associates and Ann Beha Architects, opened on November 8, 2009. The new addition more than triples the square footage of the building, and is the first building in the USA to make use of European Double-Skin Curtainwall technology. During most of the construction, the library collection had been relocated to the Longfellow School. 

Cambridge Public Library

Completed in 1911 at a cost of $300,000, Andover Hall at Harvard University was designed by Allen and Collens, a firm that focused largely on neo-medieval and ecclesiastical designs, and is the only building at Harvard built in the Collegiate Gothic style of architecture. Andover Hall was commissioned by Andover Theological Seminary, which, by 1906, saw its enrollment slide and entered an affiliation with the Divinity School in 1908. The Hall contained a chapel, library, dorms, and seminar and lecture rooms. Today, the building still contains a chapel and some classrooms, but it also holds many administrative and faculty offices. On May 1, 2019, the building's name was changed to Swartz Hall in honor of philanthropists Susan Shallcross Swartz and James R. Swartz. Andover Hall and Andover-Harvard Theological Library opened its doors in the fall of 1911. One of the first acts of the Council (Oct. 31, 1911) was its vote &ldquo;that the freedom of the Library be extended to the instructors and students of the Episcopal Theological School, of the New Church Theological School, and of Radcliffe College.&rdquo; Extending privileges to the first two schools foreshadows the later extension of mutual privileges through the Boston Theological Institute. The &ldquo;freedom&rdquo; given to Radcliffe was without parallel at Harvard for many years to come, although it would be over 40 more years before Harvard Divinity School would admit women as degree candidates. The renovated Harvard University Swartz Hall is the center of academic, administrative, and student life at the Harvard Divinity School. The historic building houses classrooms, a lecture hall, a multi-faith chapel, and faculty and staff offices. ABA completed a master plan that assessed the existing conditions, established a preservation approach, studied program needs, and developed a phased plan for renovation and expansion. In the first project following the master plan, ABA renovated classrooms in Swartz Hall, introducing new technology and flexible furnishings to accommodate traditional and emerging teaching methodologies. The current phase of renovations relocates Student Services to Swartz Hall and replaces an existing building addition known as the Cloister Link with an approximately 10,000-square-foot addition. At the ground level, visitors will find a welcoming caf&eacute;; the upper level holds a 200-seat multipurpose event room, providing a large convening space for HDS and the University.

Harvard Divinity School

Andover Hall

 ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS Boston's Symphony Hall, built in 1900, is rated one of the three great music halls in the world from the point of view of acoustics. The other two are in Vienna and Amsterdam. A fourth, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, was destroyed in World War II. The architect was Charles McKim, whose famous New York firm, McKim, Mead &amp; White, designed such notable buildings as the Boston Public Library, Harvard Stadium, and the original Pennsylvania Station. McKim's first design for the venue, which got as far as an elaborate wood and plaster model, was a semicircular hall like a Greek theater. But the symphony's founder and chief donor, Henry Lee Higginson, chose the safer path of imitating the compact rectangular shapes of two halls known to be successful acoustically: the Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Music Hall in Boston, where the BSO played for its first 19 seasons. (The Music Hall still exists as the Orpheum, now used largely for rock concerts.) Higginson and McKim also benefited from the advice of a young Harvard physics professor, Wallace Sabine, who was in the process of inventing the science of acoustics. Clients and their architects don't always see eye to eye, especially on the subject of costs. McKim complained that his building was "denuded by &hellip; ruthless economies." By the standards of concert halls, Symphony Hall is indeed austere, reminding us, perhaps, of the legendary Boston ladies of the Victorian era who would leave new gowns from Paris in their closets for a year before wearing them, in order to avoid looking too fashionable. The message of the architecture is that the hall is a place for serious listening. It is emphatically not -- as is, say, the luxuriant Paris Opera -- a setting for ostentation or social preening. -Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - Organ Transplant", Boston Globe, 8 May 2005 

although the recent photograph shows a less elegant canopy. But look at the rest of the old comer Westland and Massachusetts meet at an acute angle, and the Boston Storage Warehouse, the building on the right comer in the old photo, responds by angling along with the streets, filling the comer, and holding the edge and shape of both street spaces. At the same time, the warehouse punctuates the comer with an octagonal tower. It isn't an elegant building, but it's a very elegant piece of urban design. In the old photograph, the building poking up over the end of Symphony Hall has a tower, too, and this one also marks a comer, that of Westland with St. Stephen Street - also an acute angle. Together, the two towers with their wizard hats frame the opening into Westland, suggesting a gateway at the entrance to this short, wide street, which is, in fact, a kind of boulevard leading to the Fenway beyond. These architectural forms really work to shape and mark urban space. Looking farther along Westland, next to the Boston Storage Warehouse, we see a remarkable building, part of the warehouse and obviously intended to look like a fortification. Its boldly shadowed rank of bays above and arches below make it a strong, probably too strong, element in the street wall.

Replacing the Warehouse is Church Park Apartments, designed by the Architects Collaborative and finished in 1973. The rigidly right -angled orthodoxy of modernism does not allow this building to bend as it should at the angled comer. The building can align with one .street or the other but not both. Choosing to align with Massachusetts, it leaves silly little triangles of useless, residual space along Westland, chipping away at the shape of the street and the comer. The aggressive, jutting upper floors dominate Symphony Hall, which is a more important building, while failing to punctuate or tum the comer in any way. The round shape of the parking garage in the rear completes the chaos.

What is it, exactly, that has changed the intersection of Westland and Massachusetts avenues from well-shaped urban space into a mishmash? Symphony Hall, on the left in both photographs, hasn't changed much since the late 1920s, although the recent photograph shows a less elegant canopy. But look at the rest of the old comer Westland and Massachusetts meet at an acute angle, and the Boston Storage Warehouse, the building on the right corner in the old photo, responds by angling along with the streets, filling the comer, and holding the edge and shape of both street spaces. At the same time, the Warehouse punctuates the comer with an octagonal tower. It isn't an elegant building, but it's a very elegant piece of urban design. In the old photograph, the building poking up over the end of Symphony Hall has a tower, too, and this one also marks a comer, that of Westland with St. Stephen Street - also an acute angle. Together, the two towers with their wizard hats frame the opening into Westland, suggesting a gateway at the entrance to this short, wide street, which is, in fact, a kind of boulevard leading to the Fenway beyond. These architectural forms really work to shape and mark urban space. Looking farther along Westland, next to the Boston Storage Warehouse, we see a remarkable building, part of the warehouse and obviously intended to look like a fortification. Its boldly shadowed rank of bays above and arches below make it a strong, probably too strong, element in the street wall. Now look at the comer of today. Replacing the warehouse is Church Park Apartments, designed by the Architects Collaborative and finished in 1973. The rigidly right -angled orthodoxy of modernism does not allow this building to bend as it should at the angled comer. The building can align with one .street or the other but not both. Choosing to align with Massachusetts, it leaves silly little triangles of useless, residual space along Westland, chipping away at the shape of the street and the comer. The aggressive, jutting upper floors dominate Symphony Hall, which is a more important building, while failing to punctuate or tum the comer in any way. The round shape of the parking garage in the rear completes the chaos. Even the cars and the trolley in the old picture have a humane appearance, looking like boxy rooms on wheels, unlike the low, sleek capsules of today. Cobblestones carpet the old street, domesticating it, where the bold, painted arrows of today are visual static. In the old photo, the cars parked in front of Symphony Hall make a kind of hedge that softens the street edge. They'd be illegal today. There is nothing at all in the recent picture that is an improvement, visually - though you can't help admiring the brave bicyclist in the foreground.

 Peter Vanderwarker   Peter Vanderwarker, Peter Vanderwarker 

Symphony Hall

Ann Beha from Ann Beha Architects talks about Symphony Hall.

 Symphony Hall opened on October 15, 1900 with an inaugural gala led by music director Wilhelm Gericke. The architects, McKim, Mead & White of New York, engaged Wallace Clement Sabine, a young assistant professor of physics at Harvard, as their acoustical consultant, and Symphony Hall became the first auditorium designed in accordance with scientifically derived acoustical principles. 

Symphony Hall is widely regarded as one of the top finest concert halls in the world. The walls of the stage slope inward to help focus the sound. The side balconies are shallow so as not to trap any of the sound, and the recesses of the coffered ceiling, along with the statue-filled niches along the three sides, help to distribute the sound throughout the hall. The 16 replicas of Greek and Roman statues are related in some way to music, art, or literature. They were placed in the niches as part of an appreciation of the frequently quoted words, "Boston, the Athens of America," written by Bostonian William Tudor in the early 19th century. The Symphony Hall organ, an Aeolian Skinner designed by G. Donald Harrison and installed in 1949, is considered one of the finest concert hall organs in the world.

 Ann Beha Architects&rsquo; work establishes a dynamic discourse between heritage and the future, equally dedicated to contemporary architectural expression and the revitalization of historic resources. Planning and designing for institutions and private clients throughout the United States, we see architecture as a transforming and enduring force for change, growth, and celebration. Our projects shape and strengthen community life, establishing new directions, identities, and vibrant settings for education, the arts, and the civic realm. ABA&rsquo;s work is characterized by its balance of vision with pragmatism, and its spirited use of form and materials. Named one the TOP FIVE practices by ARCHITECT Magazine, ABA is cited for its design leadership, stewardship, and collaborative practice. 

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