Missouri State University—Ellis Hall

Abstract

Missouri State University Ellis Hall is a 1957 modernist building originally designed for the music department. The building was mostly untouched over the years, despite poor sound isolation and unremarkable, undersized performance spaces. Kirkegaard worked closely with Patterhn Ives on a comprehensive renovation that included replacing the building mechanical systems and much of its exterior curtain wall. The interior is a virtual gut/rehabilitation, but wherever possible existing walls were incorporated into new sound-isolating assemblies to avoid unnecessary expense. The substantial scale of the project compared to the very limited budget required the design team to find carefully calibrated solutions for what to reuse and what to replace. One of the greatest challenges was to provide an acoustic superior recital hall, a goal that the School of Music emphasized as critical to the future of their program, from a renovation of the low-ceilinged existing recital hall. The solution was to demolish the hall's floor slab to capture the room volume from an under-used rehearsal room below, while preserving the upstage pipe organ and a handsome wood side wall. The result is a very successful new 240 seat recital hall in the shell of the old hall.