The Juliet J. Rosch Recital Hall at SUNY Fredonia is one of five new buildings to win awards in the International Interior Design Association’s 32nd annual interior design competition, conducted in Chicago last month. Winners were chosen from among hundreds of projects submitted from interior design firms around the world.
 
The Rosch Recital Hall and other winning projects will be featured in an upcoming issue of Interior Design Magazine.
 
Designed by J. Arvid Klein of the award-winning New York City architectural firm, Pasanella + Klein Stolzman + Berg Architects, the Rosch Recital Hall was built over a three-year period by Concept Construction of Elma and is located in the eastern wing of Mason Hall, home of the Fredonia School of Music. Both the design and construction were overseen by Markus Kessler of the SUNY Fredonia Facilities Planning Office and by the SUNY Construction Fund. The recital hall opened in the Fall of 2004.
 
University officials estimate that the project, which also included the addition of classroom space, music labs, practice rooms, offices, studios, and a sound recording technology suite, involved approximately 148 weeks of construction and 70,000 man-hours. The wood flooring on the interior of the building was crafted out of materials from the forests of Oregon and is interlaced in a combination of end-groove and tongue-in-groove techniques. The hall, featuring a stage, and three levels of audience seating, is lined with 1,400 acoustical panels, which create a quality of sound unmatched in most halls of its size.
 
The addition was named for 1930 Fredonia Normal School graduate and life-long Jamestown, N.Y., resident, Juliet J. Rosch. The late Ms. Rosch was the donor of a $1 million gift to the Fredonia College Foundation to create scholarships and educational programs for School of Music students.
 
IIDA is a professional networking and educational association of 10,000 members in eight specialty forums and more than 30 vhapters around the world.
 
"The selected winners represent a wide range of project types. The common thread lies in their clarity of idea and the designer’s ability to develop that concept through the details in a clear and consistent way," stated John Mack, IIDA’s vice president of communications.
 
The other top five winners of the award this year were: The Orange Room in Toronto, Ontario; the Anthony Nak project in Austin, Texas; the Haworth Center in Chicago, Ill.; and the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Mass.