Renovations to St. Joseph’s Hall at Notre Dame are Complete

St Joseph's Hall at Notre Dame Seminary has been substantially completed by FH Myers Construction on July 22nd, 2016 for the Archdiocese of New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana.


St Joseph's Hall is an existing historic 4-story, 63,300 SF masonry student housing building at Notre Dame Seminary, a repeat client for HMS. We had previously renovated the 4000 square-foot auditorium in this building and are continuing to do work on campus. In this project, HMS worked with the Archdiocese to rearrange the 36 student dormitories and 21 faculty dormitories into more contemporary suites. The design solution created adjoining rooms with a shared bathroom. The rooms can be utilized individually or paired together to create a suite for faculty full-time residence. Several suites are set aside for visiting priests to stay while in town. In addition, the renovation included 5 classrooms, including one computer lab and practicum space. The existing chapel was relocated from a central rotunda to a more secluded cathedral-ceiling space on the top floor, with the rotunda turned into an easily-accessed student lounge. Finally, we reconfigured the ad-hoc office area to a deliberately designed, 31 office administrative suite.

The historic nature of the building and its close proximity to the seminary building meant the design team had to approach our work with sensitivity to the character of the original design and compliment the existing materials and craftsmanship.  To that end, the decision was made to refurbish the existing wood windows, salvage much of the existing interior masonry partitions, and create a custom wood baseboard detail that seamlessly integrates new power and data to each dorm room.  In a similar way, we reconfigured the previously retrofitted air conditioning system to be able to raise the hallway ceiling almost back to its original height, while still accommodating the lighting, air conditioning, plumbing, and new sprinkler systems.

The entire project was completed in 27 months including 15 months of construction. The project was opened in Aptil 2015 only one day behind the original project schedule, and well in advance of arriving students for the fall semester.  The project was also completed well under budget.

More information about St Joseph's Hall at Notre Dame Seminary

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Case Study: Renderings vs Reality at Casper College School of Music

In the course of designing the new School of Music building at Casper College, in 2011, we created several renderings to aid in our design decisions for the major spaces, to make sure they look & feel right.  These were also used to show the owner what they could expect as a final product, and also distributed to them to use as promotional materials to drum up support.

The program we used (the then-cutting edge Autodesk Revit 2011&2012,) allowed us (and our consultants) to model the entire building in the computer before anything was built, allowing us to more accurately visualize how the finished product will generally look.  There are several schools of thought in terms of renderings, but we generally strive towards accuracy, minimizing the amount of embellishment.   There are, of course, levels of detail that are not always present.  For example, often we don't need to spend time modeling the light switches and exit signs to get a good sense of the space, but in general, with a more accurate rendering, the client is made aware of the final appearance of the space, and if any problems are found early on, they can be addressed before they become expensive change orders during construction.

When the project was completed, HMS hired a photographer to document the same spaces.  See below for the comparison, to show how closely the renderings (created entirely in the computer while the site was a grass field) compared to the real world building, more than a year later.

Concert hall from back rear.  Rendering is on top, final picture below.  This rendering is from relatively early in the process, and there has been some subtle tweaking of the design during the final CD stage and construction, notably in the upper ceiling and wall panels, and the lower railings.

Concert hall from center.  This rendering has been updated, showing the revised railings, wall panels, and ceiling panels, changed during value engineering.

Instrumental Rehearsal hall.  Rendering is on top, final picture below.   Both views are from the back of the room towards the front, but are from opposite corners - the whiteboard is the same.  For reference, the room is more or less symmetrical, except for the window.  The curtain is adjustable, and can be opened or closed to suit the acoustics of the room.

Choir Room.  Rendering on top, final picture below.  Rendering is fairly accurate, other than missing furniture and curtains, and some slight material inaccuracies with the wooden slats at the top, the ceiling tile material, and the wall diffuser material.

Percussion Suite.  Rough rendering on top, final photo on bottom.   Views are from opposite corners of the same room, facing the same windows.  All the acoustic panels and casework is modeled correctly, although the same ceiling and wall diffuser material issues are present, and the carpet tile was laid in a slightly different pattern.  Notably, the curved acoustic hanging panels needed to be shifted slightly during construction.

Front Lobby.  Rendering at top, final image below.  All the elements are in place, minus the owner-supplied furniture.  The color balance differs slightly, with reality feeling brighter and fresher than the warm and dark rendering.

Main Stair.  Rendering at top, final photo below.  Note how the stair, railing, lights, and benches are all built more or less as drawn, except for a few finishes, selected later.

Upstairs Lobby  Rendering is on the top, with final photo on the bottom.  Geometry is essentially identical, along with colors.   There are only a few  special system and owner-supplied elements missing from the renderings, and the room in general "feels" darker than reality.

For reference, this building was modeled in then-cutting edge Autodesk Revit 2011 and 2012, and rendered in the same program, on our local computers.  Since then, we have continually improved our rendering technology and skills to create better and more-accurate renderings.

LSU M&DA Wins AIA Gulf States Award

The Louisiana State University Music and Dramatic Arts building has been given an Honor Award by the Gulf States region of the American Institute of Architects.  According to the jury:  

The architect lovingly restored the existing building and made additions that did not detract or compete with the original structure. The proscenium theater, in particular, was restored to its original glory. The architect inserted new life safety systems unobtrusively, preserving the high spirits of this glorious Art Deco building.

HMS is honored by the building's selection.

From the HMS website:

Louisiana State University built the original Music & Dramatic Arts Facility in 1932. This large Italian Renaissance building is recognized in the State Register of Historic Places, but lacked the modern amenities necessary to properly support the college’s music and theater programs. In addition, the basic common areas were substandard in function and safety.
HMS managed the programming for the entire renovation. The performance spaces needed a significant overhaul, however the academic and support spaces were the largest challenge. The facility needed new classrooms, faculty offices, research rooms, libraries and storage. HMS Team had to first understand the department goals, changing curriculum and class scheduling.
The final design brought new clarity to the circulation and visual balance to a discordant series of prior additions and related buildings. Our solution restores and enhances the distinctive art deco elements of the original 400-seat proscenium theatre and main lobby
The new design overhauls an obsolete building infrastructure while working within the boundaries of a very restricted site and budget.

More about the award at the AIA website (see fourth slide)
More about the award-winning LSU Music and Dramatic Arts Building at the HMS Architects website
More about HMS-designed music schools and other performance Projects