Emma Willard School

Listed on the Registry of Historic Places, the Mount Ida campus of Emma Willard School in Troy, NY, was designed by the Olmstead brothers and is home to several historic buildings. One such building is the 1910 Alumnae Chapel which was repurposed to accommodate the Alice Dodge Wallace 38’ Center for the Performing Arts. The architectural design consisted of a below grade addition to the chapel and a connection to the studio arts facilities of Snell-Dietel-Maguire centrally located on the 147-acre campus. Leaded glass windows and wood trusses were maintained to preserve the historic character of the chapel.

The arts center accommodates a 485-person theater (with main floor and balcony seating), and also incorporates a 70-piece orchestra rehearsal room, a 100-seat studio theatre with retractable seating, and two dance studios with sprung floors. Flexibility was central to the design and was enhanced by the inclusion of a motorized stage, extendable as needed to accommodate a variety of settings and uses for the space. Improved acoustics and lighting were also critical elements being addressed in this adaptive reuse.

Kohler Ronan designed building systems in support of the program and in keeping with the school’s historical character and sustainability goals. The design included all-electric heating, cooling, and domestic hot water production, eliminating the need for fossil fuel consumption on site. A central air source heat unit pump provides hot and chilled water to distributed air-handling equipment within the building. Air handling systems include energy recovery systems to trim ventilation loads when possible. Finally, displacement ventilation in the main auditorium delivers air-conditioning to the space while at the same time limits the impact on the historic chapel’s interior appearance.

Photo credit: © Chuck Choi Architectural Photography