On January 14th, President Mike Hammond stood in front of the student body during the first chapel back from winter break and announced a beyond generous donation of a new music building project beginning.
Though the square footage is unreleased, The Adams Center for Music will hold additional classrooms, small performance areas, a large rehearsal room, and its gorgeous performance hall that will seat 500. The building allows for all of the music programs to finally gather under one space and one building. With previous rehearsals and small concerts taking place in The Chapel, all music will be shown in the new building other than the largely attended Christmas Gala.
Becoming an extension of the current Phillips Music Center, The Adams Center for Music will be aesthetically beautiful, reflecting the beauty of Christ and the music making that will therefore glorify Him. “The Adams Center will be one of the finest collegiate musical facilities in Massachusetts,” President Hammond announced.
Beginning this summer of 2026, the project will take two years of vigorous construction and is planned to be complete in the fall of 2028. However, Dr. Sarita Kwok, Dean of the Adams School of Music and the Arts says that this project has been in the works for nearly a decade, promised to have been gifted to Gordon by the Adams family. “Their commitment to the arts and music, and Christian higher education, is unparalleled.” Kwok said. “We’re incredibly blessed to be the recipients of their generosity and investment,” going on to say, “This will be a transformative space, not just for our campus, but in the national landscape of music making in the northeast.”
Designed by Epstein Joslin + Picardy Architects, the building’s interior windows will directly lead the eye to the A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel, in recognition of the college roots and faith. “They are award-winning and nationally recognized,” Kwok noted and shared that the architects’ next large project is the Symphony Hall in Downtown, Boston, marking their high level experience in gorgeous music making venues.
The production team and Gordon staff members as a part of the planning share that it is their goal to make the project the least disruptive for both students and staff in the next two academic years as construction takes place.
Students involved in music see this as a new growth of Gordon’s music program and production and look forward to the day all of Gordon’s musicians can be under one roof for all rehearsals, classes, and most performances for the first time ever. With a beautiful project comes beautiful musical production which all points to the greater beauty of the Creator and changing the musical dynamic on the North Shore.
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