The Building

The Design

Allied Works was selected to design the National Music Centre of Canada following an international competition. The NMC is an entirely new cultural institution dedicated to the music of Canada in all of its forms. It is at once museum, performance hall, interactive music education center, recording studio and broadcast center. Sited opposite the Stampede Grounds in the East Village area of Calgary, the new NMCC along with the restored King Eddy Hotel is intended to catalyze the future development of the district.

The National Music Center is a gathering of resonant vessels that stand as sentinels to the East Village of Calgary. The building is a silent and powerful instrument that exists to emanate music and light. Nine towers form the body of the building; the concrete walls, clad in copper, rise in subtle curves that merge, part and intertwine, modeled by light, gravity and acoustics. Entering from the street, the building is filled with the reverberation of voices and music, drawing visitors up into five floors of performance, education and collections spaces. The apertures at each gallery create a threshold of sound, introducing the content and programs of the particular exhibition. The spaces between are filled with silence, with views that frame the city and landscape beyond. Bridging across the street and back again, the building creates a gateway for the new quarter, uniting the artists residences, club and recording studios with the new presentation spaces.

The building binds audience and performer, student and teacher, the body and the collection. It is an immersion in sound and structure, a continuously enfolding space that creates a perpetual between.

The Process

In the spring of 2009, Cantos Music Foundation sent an international request for Expressions of Interest to design the National Music Centre. The response was overwhelming with 66 proposals coming in from all over the globe. Our board of directors’ construction committee narrowed the field down to five teams:

Jean Nouvel Workshop, France
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York
Saucier + Perrotte, Montreal
SFP Architects, Los Angeles
Allied Works, Portland, OR

Designs on Calgary

We invited these five firms to present their designs publicly at the Grand Theatre in the summer of 2009. This sold out event was very well received and had the city and architectural circles around the world talking about the merits of each proposal.

To help vet the designs, Cantos recruited and engaged an Advisory Committee made up of numerous subject experts including:

Chris Cran, Visual Artist
Joe Guerts, Museum Construction Expert
Senator Pamela Wallin
Jason Wilson, Musician
Diane Deacon, Creativity Consultant
Steve McConnell, Architect
Tony Luppino, Architectural Competition Expert and Moderator

The Architects

Based on a number of factors including relevant experience, design concept, team chemistry and recommendations from the advisory committee, the board of directors unanimously selected Allied Works of Portland, OR, under the leadership of Brad Cloepfil, to design the National Music Centre.

With offices in Portland, Oregon and New York, New York, Allied Works Architecture is engaged in a wide variety of cultural, commercial and residential projects across North America.

Among the first projects completed by Allied Works are the Maryhill Overlook in the Columbia River Gorge, the first of a series of five interpretive designs in diverse landscapes across the Pacific Northwest, and the adaptive reuse and transformation of an historic warehouse in Portland’s Pearl District for the world headquarters of advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy. 

In recent years, Allied Works has focused on important cultural and educational buildings within urban centers, arts districts and academic campuses. Completed projects include the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, a major addition to the Seattle Art Museum, the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas, and the redesign of 2 Columbus Circle for the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan. Most recently, the firm completed a renovation and expansion of the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Current commissions include the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado, a new animation studio for Pixar in Emeryville, California, two major residential projects – the Dutchess County Residence and the Hudson Street Loft in New York, and master planning for the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon and the Caldera Arts Foundation in Central Oregon.

Allied Works has been widely published in magazines and journals throughout the US, Europe and Asia, and critical recognition of the work has grown with each completed project. The firm anticipates the release of its first book in 2010. The book, a series of conversations with a broad selection of artists, scientists, thinkers and makers, will explore past, present and future projects and focuses on the ideas and principles that form the basis of the work.