The new Classroom and Recital Hall at the University of California, Davis, will be created by a team of architects and builders who will collaborate to deliver an intimate, acoustically superb recital hall.

Campus officials announced today that they have selected LPAS Architects and Kitchell CEM, both of Sacramento, to design and build the $15 million venue.

Located at the east entrance to campus, the 17,000 square-foot Classroom and Recital Hall will bridge the university and community of Davis, providing not only much-needed teaching space but also a world-class performance venue.

The new building, which includes a 5,000 square-foot concert space, will accommodate patrons with 399 seats, providing a home for chamber and solo music performances as well as addressing the need for new classroom space for the university.

Groundbreaking for the new facility, which will be located on a site next to the present Music Building, is expected next April, with anticipated completion in 2015.

“This Classroom and Recital Hall, together with the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art already under way, ushers in a new chapter in UC Davis’ rich legacy in the arts,” said Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi. “This building will enable students to learn about many kinds of music, from different cultures and parts of the world.”  

The longstanding need for a new performance, practice and education space for students required $5 million in philanthropic support to become a reality. In 2008, arts patrons Grace and Grant Noda of Davis gave $1 million toward building the new recital hall, spurring a fundraising effort to move the project forward. The Nodas recently pledged an additional $500,000 to the recital hall.

“Rich or poor, everyone has access to music. It transcends race, social status. It is apolitical,” said Grace Noda. “Music has been a large part of our lives, and we want to give that gift to others. It is clear how much this new facility is needed and how great an impact it will have.”

The Nodas were introduced to the project by their longtime friend, Barbara K. Jackson, whose gift named the large concert hall in the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at UC Davis, and who has also generously supported the recital hall project.

Approximately $3 million of the required $5 million has been raised through philanthropic gifts. The campus continues to raise funds for the remaining $2 million. No student fees or state funds will be used to build the recital hall.

Jessie Ann Owens, dean of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies at UC Davis and a member of the music faculty, said she is particularly pleased that all of the faculty and staff in the music department have contributed to the project.

“I am so grateful for their generosity on behalf of students for generations to come,” Owens said.

The facility is expected to become one of the region’s most active concert venues, offering more than 100 performances annually by groups such as the University Chorus, Gamelan Ensemble, Empyrean Ensemble, Early Music Ensemble, and UC Davis Baroque Ensemble. It is already generating enthusiasm in the campus and region, and among alumni.

“I could not be more excited to hear that my alma mater plans to build a recital hall commensurate with the stature of the music department and university’s role as a cultural hub of Northern California,” said Grammy award-winning composer and guitarist Steven Mackey, a professor of music at Princeton who earned his bachelor’s degree in music from UC Davis in 1978.

“A fine musical acoustic and inspiring ambience fuel a passion for music and facilitate transcendence, which, as teachers and students of music, is our ultimate goal,” Mackey said.

The hall will enable greater collaboration across the university, opening up fresh possibilities for music festivals, extended artists residencies and other new programming.

Inside, the lobby can accommodate receptions, performances and other events. The project also will include an outdoor courtyard for afternoon lectures, outdoor performances and artist receptions. Oak trees will shade the recital hall, and evergreen trees will create a link from the West Plaza to Putah Creek.

The building also will include a “greenroom,” a lounge in which performers can wait before going on stage, along with studios for music instruction and ensemble rehearsals, and “shells” for six practice rooms. Studio teaching spaces will double as individual or chamber music practice spaces when students are not in class. Rooms for instrument storage are included in the plan as well.

The hall will become the new home for the popular class, “Music 10: Introduction to Musical Literature,” which attracts hundreds of students each quarter, as well as “Music 11: Musics of the World.”

To make room for the new building, workers have torn down two existing buildings — the old boiler plant and Temporary Building 195, the former firehouse. The design will preserve existing trees, add new plantings, and create a strong connection to the adjacent Putah Creek and T. Elliot Weir Redwood Grove. Another project under way, to renovate and widen Hutchison Drive, will create the main entrance to the recital hall.

“Performance is at the heart of our music program: The only way to learn is by actually performing, getting out there on the stage, taking risks, trying to nail a performance the way a gymnast nails a landing,” said Owens, who is also a musicologist. “Space is the necessary partner for making music.”

Jurors who selected the design, a panel that included campus architects, faculty, staff and acoustical experts, praised the winning design for its large and welcoming lobby, the quality of temperature control and efficiency, the acoustical design and the warm feel projected through use of wood and color.

Of the three finalist teams, the LPAS design was also considered the most likely to earn LEED Gold designation from the U.S. Green Building Council. The university has set a goal of achieving Gold designation for all new construction.

LPAS designed Folsom Lake College’s Harris Center of the Performing Arts in Folsom.

As with all building commissions awarded at UC Davis, the campus Office of Design and Construction Management allows a period of time for competitors to appeal the decision if they feel there are grounds to do so.

Gifts to the Classroom and Recital Hall are part of The Campaign for UC Davis, the university’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign, which seeks to raise $1 billion from 100,000 donors by December 2014.