2008 Woodie Awards
Destruction of Music Annex leads to disturbing questions
Issue date: 8/30/07 Section: Opinion/Editorial
- Page 1 of 1
It's a shame the new school year had to begin with the sound of splintering wood instead of the sweet, sultry jazz that usually wafts from the Music Annex.
For those who were unaware, machinery tore down the wooden building located between the Loretto-Hilton Center and the Thompson Music Building Aug. 25. The Music Annex, an invaluable part of Webster's music department, was constantly busy, serving as practice, performance and classroom space for a wide range of students.
Indeed, according to the 2007-08 course schedule, several classes were still scheduled to take place within the painfully empty space now surrounded by plastic orange mesh. According to friendly white slips of paper clothespinned to the mesh, students and faculty must make do with the "New Music Annex," a room located within the new Community Music School building on Garden Avenue.
Naturally, ignoring the obviously trivial need for more classrooms, the administration will turn the area that once was the Music Annex into what Webster students really need - a patch of grass. Now, rather than learning their craft in a structure university officials have deemed "dilapidated," "a maintenance nightmare" and an "eyesore," students can sing and bang their drums in a room so new, it still smells like paint.
Yes, the CMS has given the music department a large, lofty room in lieu of the annex. But how long will the music students be safe? After all, won't the growing CMS eventually need the rest of its building for its increasing enrollment? What will happen then? These, of course, were issues addressed by Michael Parkinson, former Webster music professor and chairman of the music department.
Perhaps more thought-provoking are the parallels we can draw between the fate of the Music Annex and that of the Visual Arts Studio.
Both are old facilities. Both experience ("experienced," in the case of the Music Annex) heavy use by students. Indeed, the Music Annex and the Visual Arts Studio are loved by generations of artists who have had to create within the confines of cramped spaces.
Again, in the words of the administration, both have become maintenance nightmares. In fact, both mold and asbestos have been found in the Visual Arts Studio.
So what's to become of the Visual Arts Studio? Hasn't it met all the same criteria for demolition as the Music Annex? Isn't it also an "eyesore?"
Luckily, despite being built as a temporary facility and developing into a problem area on campus, the administration has decided to simply try to make the building usable, focusing its attention on the construction of a new science building to rival Washington University and St. Louis University.
But how long will the administration be preoccupied with its foray into the world of science before it decides to stamp out the Visual Arts Building in the same way it killed the music in the annex?
For those who were unaware, machinery tore down the wooden building located between the Loretto-Hilton Center and the Thompson Music Building Aug. 25. The Music Annex, an invaluable part of Webster's music department, was constantly busy, serving as practice, performance and classroom space for a wide range of students.
Indeed, according to the 2007-08 course schedule, several classes were still scheduled to take place within the painfully empty space now surrounded by plastic orange mesh. According to friendly white slips of paper clothespinned to the mesh, students and faculty must make do with the "New Music Annex," a room located within the new Community Music School building on Garden Avenue.
Naturally, ignoring the obviously trivial need for more classrooms, the administration will turn the area that once was the Music Annex into what Webster students really need - a patch of grass. Now, rather than learning their craft in a structure university officials have deemed "dilapidated," "a maintenance nightmare" and an "eyesore," students can sing and bang their drums in a room so new, it still smells like paint.
Yes, the CMS has given the music department a large, lofty room in lieu of the annex. But how long will the music students be safe? After all, won't the growing CMS eventually need the rest of its building for its increasing enrollment? What will happen then? These, of course, were issues addressed by Michael Parkinson, former Webster music professor and chairman of the music department.
Perhaps more thought-provoking are the parallels we can draw between the fate of the Music Annex and that of the Visual Arts Studio.
Both are old facilities. Both experience ("experienced," in the case of the Music Annex) heavy use by students. Indeed, the Music Annex and the Visual Arts Studio are loved by generations of artists who have had to create within the confines of cramped spaces.
Again, in the words of the administration, both have become maintenance nightmares. In fact, both mold and asbestos have been found in the Visual Arts Studio.
So what's to become of the Visual Arts Studio? Hasn't it met all the same criteria for demolition as the Music Annex? Isn't it also an "eyesore?"
Luckily, despite being built as a temporary facility and developing into a problem area on campus, the administration has decided to simply try to make the building usable, focusing its attention on the construction of a new science building to rival Washington University and St. Louis University.
But how long will the administration be preoccupied with its foray into the world of science before it decides to stamp out the Visual Arts Building in the same way it killed the music in the annex?
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