looking through the double windows you can see how it’s a building within a building.

HE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES at Proctor Academy are as diverse as those at any other prep school in the United States. With help from Trumbull-Nelson, the school has added to this diversity with the construction of a state-of-the-art “Music Instrument Building.”

This new facility gives students a resource for advanced sound recording and music instruction that is unrivaled in prep school circles, not to mention most college campuses. Considering the 158-year-old school has long been known for its beautiful 3,000-acre campus and facilities (which includes a private ski mountain), this comes as no surprise.

“The new music building demonstrates Proctor’s commitment to matching facilities with the abilities and interests of our students,” said Mike Henriques, the Head of School. “We emphasize the arts and believe they pull the community together and give students the opportunity to grow intellectually. The building benefits the campus community but also draws the school into the larger, surrounding community.”

On the outside, the Music Instrument Building looks like one of the many restored white clapboard buildings that dot the campus, but the inside is one of a kind and represents the latest chapter in Proctor’s mission as a leader in non-traditional education.

The building was designed by Jack Piercy, an internationally renowned acoustical engineer based in New London, New Hampshire. A leader in his field, Piercy’s designs are astoundingly intricate.

“Everything is designed to eliminate vibrations,” said Paul Tremblay, the project superintendent for Trumbull-Nelson, who coordinated and oversaw the entire project from the ground up. “It’s quite literally a building-within-a-building,” he continued. “There’s an exterior wall, then a two-inch air space, and then an inner wall, all with special sound insulation materials. The walls are over 14 inches thick. The roof is a similar system.”

The 2,900-square-foot building’s first floor includes four rooms: a large studio with a cathedral ceiling; a cutting-edge control room; a small isolation studio; and an office for Bill Wightman, Proctor’s director of instrumental music. The floor is set on two-by-fours mounted in thick U-boat floor floats that eliminate vibration. On the lower level there is a large room for groups and a mechanical room. To say that there are only two rooms on the lower level, however, would be deceiving, because that isn’t always the case: Within the building there are four portable, individual practice rooms that can be set up within the larger room.

Piercy’s design is subtle and sophisticated. Suspended from the cathedral ceiling of the main studio is a quadratic resonance diffuser (QRD), which controls sound perfectly. Barely noticeable in this rectangular QRD: the center set of baffles (which controls sound waves) is canted down at a five-degree angle while the perimeter panels are positioned at a six-degree up angle. A large, triple-pane window permits viewing between the studio and the control room. Each pane had to be installed at a specified angle. The fabric panels that cover the walls and ceiling of the control room also required insertion at specific angles.
	a triple-pane window permits viewing between the studio and the control room.

Among the unique classes offered at Proctor Academy is a class that takes place on a boat from Maine to the Caribbean, a class set in the mountains of the American West, and classes in Spain, France, and Costa Rica.

Installing Piercy’s complex acoustical design was a challenge for the Trumbull-Nelson construction team, because there was no room for error. Noted Tremblay, “Every acoustical treatment has been designed, engineered, and installed with a single purpose: the precise management of sound.”

Doug Windsor, a Proctor Academy graduate—who is now a Proctor trustee and chair of the building committee—led Proctor’s workforce and served as the working link to Trumbull-Nelson. Windsor describes his tenure at Proctor as a student as “a life-changing experience.”

Proctor Academy has an historic commitment to a curriculum that extends beyond the normal college preparatory subjects—a curriculum that addresses the many interests of its diverse student body. It’s a school that blends courses in English, History, Geometry, and Astronomy with Boatbuilding, Precision Machining, Dance, and Theater. As stated by Windsor, “Hands-on learning is at the heart of this school.”

There’s always something new at Proctor, which was built on the motto, “Learn to live, live to learn.” And the Music Instrument Building, the building within a building, is the latest chapter in the evolving story of Proctor’s mission.

When it comes to sound sensitive, double-wall construction and installation of a quadratic resonance diffuser, it’s been a “first” for Paul Tremblay and Trumbull-Nelson, too.