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Academy "Topped Out"
June 11, 2007
LANCASTER, PA – The last steel beam was hoisted into place atop the Pennsylvania Academy of Music's new facility in Lancaster on Monday, June 11 at a morning “Topping Out” ceremony filled with celebration.A longstanding tradition on construction projects, the “Topping Out” ceremony is held to commemorate a milestone in the building process, when the last beam is put in place.
At the Academy's ceremony, faculty, staff, supporters and elected officials signed the beam, painted white for the occasion, before it was hoisted into place on a western section of the three-story building. A crowd of about 100 friends of the Academy attended the event.
Although the building is not slated for completion until spring 2008, signs of remarkable progress were everywhere. The granite façade gleams at passers-by on Prince Street, the recital hall stage and seating tiers are taking shape, and the elegant bow front window frames are in.
Speakers at the event included Academy President Michael Jamanis who thanked the community for its support of this unique project, architect Alan Ritchie of Philip Johnson Alan Ritchie Architects, Steve Lee of Benchmark Construction, Ely Gonick of the Academy Board and building committee, and Paul W. Ware, chairman of the Academy board.
Lancaster County Commissioners Molly Henderson, Sharron Nelson and Dick Shellenberger were in attendance as was former Lancaster City Mayor Charlie Smithgall.
The new facility was designed by Alan Ritchie and the late Philip Johnson of Philip Johnson Alan Ritchie Architects (designers of the AT&T headquarters in New York City and several renowned concert venues). Acoustics were designed by Cyril Harris, whose work includes the Kennedy Center, New York's Metropolitan Opera, the S. Mark Taper Auditorium at Benaroya Hall in Seattle and the Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City, among others.
The new 63,000 square foot facility will feature a 367-seat recital hall, private studios, a string suite, a percussion studio, rooms for choral study and performance, state-of-the-art recording facilities with broadcast capabilities, a new computer lab, a modern and expanded library, classrooms for theory and composition, rehearsal rooms for instrumental use, and an atrium. The new building will provide an important “anchor” for the Lancaster Arts Corridor.
The project is being constructed by Benchmark Construction Company of Brownstown which completed the Rolex Lititz Watch Technicum and worked on the Lancaster General Hospital Orthopedic Center and the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design. It is financed through Union National Bank which has also financed such projects as Lancaster's Westminster Church and Manheim's Mazza Vineyards and Renaissance Faire.
The Pennsylvania Academy of Music is a non-profit pre-collegiate institution dedicated to the musical advancement of its students. Founded in 1990, the Academy attracts students from an immediate nine-county area as well as from around the world, who study disciplines ranging from instrumental, chamber music, orchestra, opera and vocal performance to music composition and theory, improvisation, accompanying ,jazz and recording. The Academy has a widely accomplished international faculty and is one of only 12 autonomous pre-collegiate music schools in the country accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music.
