Date: August 25, 2011
Contact: architecture@andrews.edu
Website: http://www.andrews.edu/arch/programs/missions_group.html
Phone: 269-471-6003

This past spring, the Architecture Missions Group (AMG) in the Andrews University School of Architecture completed a preliminary plan for a music building and performance hall at Central Philippine Adventist College in the Philippines. The two-story building will include a 200-seat performance hall, classrooms, practice rooms and support facilities.
  
The first step in a larger development plan, the music building heralds the development of the college’s music program. Heidi Cerna started the music program, which the college hopes will flourish and attract more students once the new building is operational.

The AMG heard of the college’s need through Cerna and set about designing an adequate facility. Martin Smith, assistant professor of architecture, made an initial site visit in January 2010, and with two graduate students, Sara Kozlowski and Robert Murray, began preliminary planning that spring. By spring of this current year, the architects had delivered completed sketches and plans to Central Philippine Adventist College.

Central Philippine Adventist College now plans to fundraise the roughly $720,000 for the building in three years. The college will hire local contractors to construct the music building, as the AMG only provides construction services when not available.

Artist rendering of the proposed music and performance hall the AMG designed for Central Phillipine Adventist College.

Kozlowski, a graduate student enrolled in a practicum class, wanted more practical experience, and signed onto the project as a way to get that experience. Robert Murray, joined as part of a community service class.

The AMG’s project had an unexpected effect. In a letter to Carey Carscallen, dean of the School of Architecture, the president of Philippine Adventist College said, “We are truly blessed to be a recipient of your mission outreach program, a model that we are encouraged to emulate as we continue to serve different schools and churches.”

-Written by Samantha Snively, student news writer, Office of Integrated Marketing & Communication