Conceived as a contemporary annex to an established music campus, the GELM Annex integrates a new program into daily academic life while opening the grounds to the community. A shaded courtyard calibrated as an acoustic buffer from street noise becomes the social heart for informal rehearsals and gatherings. A porous ground level extends the public realm indoors, while a compact bar of rehearsal rooms and classrooms floats above under deep overhangs to optimize daylight, cross-ventilation, and solar control.

The program is organized in three clear bands: a public lobby gallery that doubles as a small recital venue; a suite of practice rooms, ensemble classrooms, and a flexible black-box studio with variable acoustic treatments; and a service spine with instrument storage, faculty areas, and back-of-house. Intuitive, inclusive circulation links old and new: a ramped promenade ties legacy buildings to the courtyard, and a glass stair with an adjacent elevator anchors wayfinding and ensures universal access.

Materially, austere volumes are softened by climate-responsive skins, hurricane-rated glazing shaded by aluminum louvers, and perforated breeze-block screens that cast patterned shade by day and a lantern glow by night. Durable cast-in-place concrete and galvanized steel support rapid post-storm recovery, while the landscape functions as infrastructure with native planting, a bioswale, and permeable paving to manage stormwater and cool the microclimate. Sustainability is integrated, not applied through orientation, overhangs, operable clerestories, PV with battery backup for critical loads, and rainwater harvesting. Acoustics drive the detailing: decoupled wall assemblies, adjustable absorption/diffusion panels, and isolated floors and ceilings tune spaces from solo practice to full ensemble, turning the Annex into an instrument the school can play.