Earl V. Moore Building History

Original Architecture Plans:

The building the School of Music occupied for 70 years on Maynard Street could hold only 550 students (undergrad, masters, and doctoral). The new building (Moore) could hold 850 students. (Building) We now have over 1050 students enrolled. Even with the added last pod and a few infrastructure changes, programs are being limited because of lack of space. (CK)

The original plans for the School of Music building underwent many changes before the final product that was constructed. There was going to be two additional performance and rehearsal halls and a domed outdoor concert hall. Budget constraints limited the dreams of the building and the outdoor hall was downsized to an ampitheater seating hundreds. With still not enough money, they downsized again. No outdoor concert hall at all was built and a theater instead of a choral rehearsal space became the last pod of the building (McIntosh). The building cost 4.1 million dollars.

In 1980, at the centennial of the School of Music, a music shell for outdoor concerts, a lab for music and technology, and a sound recording studio were seen in the future of the building. (Crawford)

Click on the links below to view full-page versions of the original Eero Saarinen architecture plans.

Saarinen 1953	Saarinen 2
Saarinen 1955_1	Saarinen 3
Saarinen 1955_2	Saarinen 4
Saarinen 1956	Saarinen 5
Saarinen 1	Saarinen 6

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About The Earl V. Moore Building was built in 1964 and was designed by the famous architect, Eero Saarinen with the help of Dean Earl. V Moore. It was the first building built on North Campus. Positives: Historical building At the time it was built, creating a long building was the only way to achieve acoustic isolation Having no 90 degree angles in studios and classrooms provide acousticly pleasing rooms Appealing external design Drawbacks: Narrow hallways make class changes difficult Pecussions instruments are stored in the back of the rehearsal hall, making it difficult if not impossible to retrieve instruments without interrupting rehearsal Building unable to be altered on the oustide because of its historical value Other music, theater, and dance buildings are spread across North Campus and Central Campus since the site of the building cannot be changed