Tour of Community MusicWorks with 3sixØ Architecture

This tour of Community MusicWorks' new building on Westminster Street will be led by the project architects, Chris Bardt and Kyna Leski of 3sixØ Architecture. The event is organized by Providence Preservation Socity.

The tour will begin with brief introductory remarks by Chris and Kyna, explaining the background of the project, its conception and design, then we will move on to a walk-through of all of the interior spaces in the building, including performance hall classrooms, practice areas, the luthier shop, etc. We will move on to a look at the exterior and green/garden innovations reusing all water collected on the site for watering and will close with a wrap-up Q&A discussing neighborhood dynamics, urban scale, historic preservation, and the role of the building in community building. Not to be missed!

Kyna Leski and Chris Bardt are founding principals of 3sixØ Architecture, recognized by Architectural Record as one of 10 leading vanguard firms worldwide in 2002. Their extensive professional experience includes residential, commercial and institutional commissions, furniture design, and planning studies ranging from small urban interventions to large-scale metropolitan development.

Chris is a Professor of Architecture at The Rhode Island School of Design, theorist, and author of Material and Mind (MIT Press 2019) and The Feeling of Space (MIT Press 2024).
His research, drawings, writing and artifacts based on the geometry of sunlight, materials, materiality and tectonics as critical to architectural making and thinking has been widely published and exhibited worldwide. In 2017 Chris was honored with a lifetime achievement award for his design work and inducted into the RI Design Hall of Fame.

Kyna is a Professor of Architecture, and former Department Head at The Rhode Island School of Design where she has played a formative role in the beginning education for architecture students as well as students in Experimental and Foundation Studies. Her design for a house of visual shadows was awarded first place out of 480 entries in the Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition. She has spoken about the creative process throughout the US and abroad and wrote the book The Storm of Creativity, published by The MIT Press, which has been translated into Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese, Korean and Turkish and Arabic. Leski received a Lifetime Achievement Award from DesignxRI in 2017 and was inducted into their Hall of Fame.

Parking: Street parking is usually available within a few blocks of the building.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

1326 Westminster St, 1326 Westminster Street, Providence, United States