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Ute and William K. Bowes, Jr. Center for Performing Arts by Mark Cavagnero Associates

The Bowes Center is a “vertical campus” that houses affordable accommodation for students, a cafeteria, lecture halls, practice rooms, performance venues, faculty offices, and a radio station all under one roof. It is intended to allow students to make, study, and share music in a seamless, collaborative setting

Mark Cavagnero Associates
Photography by © Tim Griffith

Mark Cavagnero Associates designed the Ute & William K. Bowes, Jr. Center for Performing Arts at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) in San Francisco’s Civic Center, the city’s performing arts district. The center is a “vertical campus” that houses student housing, dining, classrooms, rehearsal spaces, performance spaces, and a radio station all under one roof.

“We designed the Bowes Center as an expression of the Conservatory’s mission, where students and the public can come together to experience music in a welcoming, inspiring space.It’s so gratifying to see it come alive; we hope the building inspires students to learn, connect, and create, in the context of the city’s performing arts leaders.”

said Mark Cavagnero, Founding Principal of Mark Cavagnero Associates

Center for Performing Arts by Mark Cavagnero Associates
Photography by © Tim Griffith

The $46.4 million grant from the William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation, the largest financial gift ever made to a music school and whose namesake was a lifelong trustee and supporter of SFCM, is commemorated by the naming of the Center. The Bowes Center creates accommodation for up to 420 students within walking distance of the Ann Getty Center at 50 Oak Street, which has served as the Conservatory’s home since 2006. Additionally, there are 27 rent-stabilized apartments in the building, which enhance and replace the previous occupants’ existing flats from the old structure on the site.

Photography by © Tim Griffith
Photography by © Kyle Jeffers
Photography by © Kyle Jeffers
Photography by © Tim Griffith
Photography by © Tim Griffith

The exterior is made of white and translucent glass, emphasizing openness, engagement, and light in the design. The Bowes Center encourages onlookers to view concerts through floor to ceiling windows in its bottom floor jewel-box Cha Chi Ming Recital Hall, which is filled with the sights and sounds of music. With floor to ceiling windows, the 200-seat Barbro Osher Recital Hall, adaptable event space, and a roof deck with unrivaled views of City Hall, Davies Symphony Hall, the War Memorial Opera House, and other landmarks, the top two floors shine brightly at night.

The Cavagnero team created a unique curtainwall system that combines all of the building’s acoustic requirements into one seamless envelope in order to achieve a cohesive design language and meet the high acoustic demands, which vary from floor to floor and are complicated by the building’s close proximity to Van Ness Avenue. Cavagnero tested the limits of glass’s acoustic performance by working with Kirkegaard Associates, Tipping Structural Engineers, and curtainwall maker CS Erectors. To isolate noise and vibration transmission from the street while keeping transparency into the performance areas, the design uses double-glazed walls and a floating structural slab. The double-glazed system adds an additional heat buffer and a sustainable component to the design.

Photography by © Kyle Jeffers
Photography by © Kyle Jeffers
Photography by © Tim Griffith
Photography by © Tim Griffith
Center for Performing Arts by Mark Cavagnero Associates
Photography by © Tim Griffith

Students enrolled in the Conservatory’s Technology and Applied Composition Program have access to studio space, classrooms, and hearing rooms at the Center for New Media, located on the second floor of the Bowes Center. Students in the Roots, Jazz, and American Music Program at SFCM, which was developed in collaboration with SFJAZZ, also utilize the facility. The underground levels of the building contain classrooms, keyboard labs, a black box Technology Hall, and a recording studio for all SFCM students. One, two, and three-bedroom apartment units, each acoustically isolated for practice, are located on floors three through eleven. As an outgrowth of the Conservatory’s ground-breaking collaboration with the nearby SF Ballet, one level is set aside for apartments for students of the San Francisco Ballet.

A “vertical campus” that incorporates affordable student housing, dining, classrooms, rehearsal rooms, performance spaces, faculty offices, and a radio station under a single roof, the Bowes Center is designed to enable students to create, learn, and share music in an integrated, collaborative environment. Named in honor and recognition of the $46.4M gift from the William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation, the Bowes Center doubles the school’s square footage and features state-of-the-art teaching facilities and three new performance halls.

Project information
Architect: Mark Cavagnero Associates
Location: 200 Van Ness Ave.
San Francisco, CA
Completion Date: 2021
Total Square Footage: 170,000 square feet
Materials: White and transparent glass

Special Features:

Highly acoustically-controlled music education spaces including classrooms, keyboard lab, a black-box Technology Hall, and a recording studio in the basement levels.

A ground floor with a jewel-box recital hall, visible to all passersby through floor to ceiling windows, a student center with social and study spaces, and dining from Chef Loretta Keller, known for her work at San Francisco’s Coco500

A Center for New Media on the second level with faculty offices, lesson rooms, and critical listening rooms for students participating in the Conservatory’s Technology and Applied Composition Program and the Roots, Jazz, and American Music Program.

Studio and one-bedroom apartment housing on floors 3-4, to replace a dilapidated apartment building that was previously on the site. Former tenants are moving into the new building at their prior rents.

Two and three-bedroom student housing units on floors 3 through 11, each acoustically isolated for practicing. One floor is dedicated to housing for San Francisco Ballet Students, an extension of the Conservatory’s unprecedented partnership with the nearby SF Ballet.

Short-term faculty housing on floor 12, providing 1-bedroom and studio apartments for visiting faculty and guest performers.

A 200-seat Penthouse Recital Hall, flexible event space, and terrace on the top two floors, offering unparalleled views of City Hall, Davies Symphony Hall, the War Memorial Opera House, and other landmarks.

Cavagnero Project Team
Mark Cavagnero, Founding Principal

Kang Kiang, Principal
Katy Hawkins, Associate
David Kwon
Robert Shepherd
Tim Waters
Joseph Holsen
Olga Luebker
David Bibliowicz
Sean Wong
Blake Perkins
Melanie Stepanicich

Project Collaborators
General Contractor: Charles Pankow Builders
Owner’s Representative: Equity Community Builders
MEP Engineer: Meyers+ Engineers
Structural Engineer: Tipping Structural Engineers
Civil Engineer: Luk and Associates
Façade Consultant: Maurya McClintock Facades
Waterproofing: Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
Landscape Architect: GLS
Lighting Consultant: Auerbach Glasow
Theater Consultant: The Shalleck Collaborative
Performance Space Acoustician: Kirkegaard Associates
Housing Acoustician: Salter Inc.
Code Consultant: Reax
Façade Maintenance: CS Caulkins
Door Hardware: Campbell McCabe
Signage: Clearstory
Sustainability: Thornton Tomasetti
Elevator Consultant: Syska Henessy
Facade Contractor: CS Erectors
Architectural Woodwork: Fetzer Architectural Woodwork
AV Integrator: BBI Inc.

Find more projects by Mark Cavagnero Associates – www.cavagnero.com

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