Northwestern University – Bienen School of Music

The Bienen School of Music is a striking Z-shaped structure that spans 152,000 square feet across five stories. It houses a world-class recital hall, opera rehearsal room/black box theatre, choral rehearsal space, and a library—alongside classrooms, faculty offices, and teaching labs. A spacious atrium anchors the building’s entryway, welcoming visitors into a vibrant and acoustically sophisticated environment. Larson Engineering provided the structural engineering for both the curtain wall system and the strip window system. To meet the project’s demanding acoustic requirements, the unitized curtain wall was designed as a double-skin façade. The interior layer features operable glass lites to allow for maintenance and cleaning—adding another layer of complexity to an already intricate system. The building’s geometry presented unique challenges, including sloping walls and more than 20 distinct corner conditions, all of which were carefully addressed through thoughtful engineering and collaboration.