Interior of main hall of Green Music Center on the Sonoma State University which is based on Seiji Ozawa Hall in Tanglewood.
The architectural firm for the Green Music Center in Sonoma County - William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc., of Boston - has been ranked as the #1 architectural firm in the nation in the May 2009 issue of ARCHITECT, one of the country's two leading national architectural magazines.
The heart of the 105,435-square-foot Green Music Center, a part of the Sonoma State University campus, is its world-class concert hall, designed to perfectly showcase acoustic music and the human voice. The $110 million facility is close to completion with only $16 million left to raise.
Rawn is Executive Architect for the Donald & Maureen Green Music Center and has been intimately and personally involved with the Center well before a shovel hit the dirt.
His inspiring design and attention to detail has made the project what it is today - a world-class musical facility on its way to completion. It's design is based on Rawn's Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood in Massachusetts, hence it has often been dubbed Tanglewood West.
He and his firm also served as architect to the Music Center at Strathmore College, Williams College Center for Theatre and Dance, the Lincoln Center Plaza Theatre and many other stunning projects.
"The Architect 50," is ARCHITECT Magazine's annual ranking of the top 50 architectural firms in the country "according to their profitability, commitment to sustainability and caliber of design."
William Rawn Associates received particularly high ranking for its percentage of LEED projects in 2008 and for the number of major design awards received. The firm was specifically cited for its work with major universities and colleges, including the Williams College '62 Center for Theatre and Dance, a winner of a national AIA Honor Award in 2008.
The firm was also cited by ARCHITECT for its public projects (the Cambridge Public Library and the new federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) and for the diversity of its projects such as its first cemetery and first synagogue.
In addition to its college and university work, William Rawn Associates is best known in New England for its music, theatre and dance projects, its six buildings as part of the new West Campus at Northeastern University, and the range of its renovation and addition projects. The firm has won nine national AIA Honor Awards and more than 105 state and regional AIA awards.
Hundreds have taken a tour of the Donald & Maureen Green Music Center and many are talking with excitement about what it will mean to the students of Sonoma State University and the residents of Sonoma County and beyond.
Below are links to the May 2009 cover of Architect Magazine, featuring William Rawn Associates, as well as the story within the magazine (click on bottom left or right to turn pages).
* Architect Magazine cover http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/hanleywood/architect_200905/#/0
* Architect Magazine article and rankings page http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/hanleywood/architect_200905/#/46/
For more details about the project, visit http://gmc.sonoma.edu/. A recent video of the Santa Rosa Symphony Conductor Bruno Ferrandis' evaluation of the main hall is available for viewing.
