The Fordham Road facility will help relieve some of the pressure of the practice crunch during the evening hours and make ensemble rooms, trio rooms, and individual practice rooms available in the afternoons. As part of the practice facility plan, we surveyed the students to determine what their practice needs were and then designed the Fordham Road facility accordingly. Some of the individual practice rooms are specifically intended for drum and piano practice. Equipment for the practice rooms was provided by the generous support of Fender Musical Instruments, Technics Musical Instruments, Roland Corporation, Avedis Zildjian Company, and Paiste Cymbal Corporation. The site was designed to be a friendly place for students to practice, jam, and relax.
Students can sign out a practice room while they wait for an ensemble room to open up.
They can also take a break from practicing and check their e-mail at the Internet cafe, or shoot some pool in the lounge. I hope that all students will take advantage of this new educational opportunity. Though a few finishing touches were still being completed, the facility opened to students on Monday, December 11, to enable them to utilize the space in preparation for finals. Plans are not finalized for the addi-tional 8,000 square feet at the Fordham Road facility that have not yet been renovated. How this area will be used is still to be determined and will depend upon Berklee's future demands for space.