Celebrating a Decade
The Center hosts residency programs, chamber music performances, festivals, symphony camps, and classes in Washington's Cascade Mountains. Each year Icicle Creek hosts 100 performances and more than 15,000 visitors.
The mountain sanctuary in Leavenworth, Washington was originally founded in 1995 by local entrepreneur and art enthusiast, Harriet Bullitt, as part of the Sleeping Lady Resort. Bullitt wanted to create a place that celebrates the synergy between the arts and the environment.
In 2011, Bullitt received funding for a redevelopment project to broaden Icicle Creek's range of education and performance offerings. Seattle architecture firm, Jones and Jones, who designed Sleeping Lady Mountain Retreat were awarded the design contract. Mark Johnson (now at his own firm, Signal Architecture + Research), served as the Project Architect and Project Manager. Using his unique ear for music and holistic design approach, Johnson collaborated with Johnpaul Jones to design the music center as a unique place for music education in nature. Johnson is also a musician and has explored improvisational and conventional approaches to music for over two decades, which made him well-suited for the music-driven project. His thesis project at Savannah College of Art and Design in 1996 theorized a music academy with residency programs for high school through masters level students in experimental music, recording, and performance-a very similar concept to Icicle Creek.
The redevelopment plan included a series of 19 buildings, including a master recital hall, group rehearsal, group lodges, individual rehearsal studios, and administrative offices. A combination of careful site planning and strategic building orientation resulted in a collection of buildings inspired by regional rock formations and historic agrarian farmhouses. The buildings are nestled into the hillside facing the Cascades so views to the landscape connect musicians and visitors alike to the natural world.
Canyon Wren Recital Hall, the primary gathering space for performances, focuses the view on the Sleeping Lady ridgeline through a unique wall of glass, indicating that there is a story embedded in the space. The design team drew parallels from Pythagoras' theories of music, including music keys and the 'Music of the Spheres', which described a music emitted by the planets of our solar system. By embedding numerology, color, and light into the design approach, the Master Recital Hall became a narrator of music structure and theory.
Stained glass, salvaged by Harriet Bullitt from a CCC camp on the site was installed in prominent positions throughout the building, indicating relationships between the major (even number / masculine) key, and minor (odd number / feminine) key, with colors representing Pythagoras' 'Seven Spheres of Babylon'. The colors of the glass represent each planet-yellow is Saturn, blue is Earth, red is Mars, and so on-which reflect a stunning array of light into the Recital Hall and make the walls come to life at different times of the day.
With framed views of stone outcroppings and ridge lines, sunsets, and tall Ponderosa Pines, the buildings create an aperture to the landscape that provides an inspiring experience to visitors and resident artists alike.
Mark Johnson and his team at Signal are currently working on Cottonwood Canyon Experience Center in Wasco, Oregon, which will provide a similar approach to learning and landscape immersion. The facility will offer residential outdoor learning, regional activities, environmental education and cultural events that serve the community, region, and Oregon State Park visitors. The multi-use facility will include classroom space, interpretive displays, activity and meeting areas, park-specific library, and gathering space for events. The 1,500-square-foot building draws similar contextual cues that inspired Icicle Creek Center for the Arts, embracing the ranch vernacular of the region of barn forms, shaded outdoor spaces, windbreaks, and rustic materials composed in a modern, nature based gathering place.
The project is expected to be complete in late summer 2018.
Project Details
Client: Icicle Creek Center for the Arts
Location: Leavenworth, WA
Project Design Lead: Signal Architecture & Research
Architect of Record: Jones and Jones
Watch the project video to learn more.
For more information visit http://signalarch.com.
