New Band Building
324 Sumter Street

Designed by Garvin Design Group of Columbia, foundation work for the $9.5 million dollar facility began on August 13th.

The state-of-the-art facility will house practice areas, rehearsal rooms, and storage for band instruments and uniforms. An adjacent practice field will allow easy and immediate access to marching rehearsals.

With an expected completion date of November, 2008, the USC Marching Band looks forward to its new home!

The program for this 34,000-sf facility poses several unique challenges: to provide a dedicated practice facility for the 300-member marching band, while also creating a home for the newly-accredited dance program at the University.  On a formerly neglected and oddly-shaped site wedged between two railroads, an elevated pedestrian walkway, and a small, utilitarian fabrication shop for the School of Engineering, the building attempts to become as narrow as possible in order to allow for the adjacent 110-yard long practice field and multiple site access elements.  The dual-level plan provides for an independent entry for dance on the lower level, and for band on the upper, thus creating a separate identity for each program housed within this one structure.  The main level building plan is organized around a series of large practice areas and dance studios along the field side to the north, flanked by smaller offices and support spaces to the south.  Physical and visual access to the field is accomplished by the linear porch element along the building's north facade and through large expanses of window-wall.  Acoustical separation and program autonomy are the major organizing factors in both building plan and section, resulting in a functional yet highly efficient organizational building scheme.