Ken, When the new addition to our building was announced, the dean formed an architectural advisory committee made up of himself, the associate dean and faculty. I went to him and said that staff should be represented as well. Guess who got the job! If anything like this committee is happening in your case, get representation. Put in for as much space as you can possibly get for a shop. Don't be shy! They are probably going to downsize everything when they see that the actual budget is less than what had been requested. It happened here but we still got a decent shop. It would be great to have that extra space we wanted but what we have is way better than the closets we had previously. You will be surprised how quickly you can fill the room. The instrument tech and I designed the layout for the shop and presented it to the architects. We built it as a suite of rooms that are interconnected. Each of us has our own small but separate office from the shop rooms. Between our respective shop rooms is a shared machinery room. Also, I teach a piano tech course so I wanted enough room in my shop to have the class in the best location. The instrument tech does the same. Try to get a capital budget to outfit the shop. Man, it is a whole lot of fun buying equipment with someone else's money! Advocate for a good chuck of change as it is very important to buy the best possible. My rational was simple, why buy cheap equipment that will have to be replaced not long down the road. It worked. Bottom line, think Big! Don Don McKechnie Piano Technician Ithaca College dmckech at ithaca.edu 607-274-3908 > I need some advice, guys. Much to my shock and surprise, the > University has hired an architectural firm to begin the planning & > design process for a new School of Music. I mean, our current > building is only 55 years old, and it has fully half of the space > we need! Anyway, the Director sent out a draft of the space needs > for the new building on Friday. The draft recommends 600 sq ft, > with an inventory of 175 or so pianos. I think I’ll need more than > that. Some questions for you: > > I’m sure some of you have moved into a new building in the last 10 > years or so. What kind of shop facility did you get, how involved > were you, how did you justify your recommendations (if any)? How > is it working? Anything you should have done differently, or any > features you wouldn’t trade for the world? > > Does anyone know of any “authoritative” source I could use, other > than the Guidelines & Steinway’s ISP, particularly one that > directly addresses shop size? > > The University has hired Susaki Architectural Associates from > Boston. Anybody familiar with these guys, good, bad or > indifferent? You can reply off-list if need be :-) > > Thanks for any and all comments, > Ken Z. > -- > Ken Zahringer, RPT > University of Missouri > School of Music -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20061024/c66b4781/attachment.html
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