Abstract:

This project proposes a vertical campus for Berklee College of Music that transforms everyday movement into performance. The building integrates theaters, teaching spaces, student life, and public programs within a continuous rising terrain of stairs, platforms, and open spaces. Architecture is not a backdrop for performance, but a device that frames motion, pause, and encounter.

The design is driven by the relationship between motion and stillness. People who move become performers, while those who pause become the audience. As the ground plane extends upward through the building, these roles continually shift. Circulation itself becomes theatrical, and the journey to the theater is as expressive as the performance it leads to.

The site sits at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and the Massachusetts Turnpike, a place defined by overlapping speeds and constant flow. The building responds by embracing movement rather than resisting it. A blackbox theater anchors the ground, engaging the city directly, while the proscenium theater is lifted above and supported by massive concrete feet. The space beneath becomes a public threshold where gathering, observation, and movement intersect.

Through its spatial, structural, and environmental strategies, the building becomes a living stage, capturing Berklee’s creative energy and extending performance into everyday urban life.