The Peddie School Arts Center Expansion

The Peddie School, founded in 1864, is a college preparatory boarding school of approximately 540 students in New Jersey. The arts at Peddie grew rapidly in just a few decades, with many students enrolling in multiple music, theater and visual arts classes. As expected, the demand for classes outpaced the school’s 1989 arts facility, and, in 2019, The Peddie School embarked on the design of a major expansion.

At the center of the project is the new Ding Music Hall, designed by ARC, which now accommodates the full range of the school’s music activities and audiences of up to 260. The hall’s generous volume, sound reflecting features, and adjustable acoustical absorbers provide an excellent acoustical environment for music performance, rehearsal, and instruction. The sections of the orchestra can hear one another well. There is a brightness and intensity of sound that brings the audience into the music. Louder passages have great impact, and quieter passages retain intensity. In addition to Ding Music Hall, new music practice and teaching spaces join renovated music, theatre, dance, and visual art spaces to round out the arts center.

Ding Music Hall features a high quality sound system with a left-center-right main loudspeaker array selected for excellent speech intelligibility, uniform coverage, and very high quality music sound. The sound system can be used with a mixing console for full user control, or in easy presentation mode. An audio recording system, operated by wall touch panel, provides instant playback capability for critique of rehearsals. The hall’s video projection system includes a carefully coordinated scissor lift to bring the projector into position when needed and up into the ceiling when stored.

A new music classroom features a flexible AV presentation system, which may be used with a mixing console for rehearsal or performance. Paging and audio playback are provided via distributed ceiling loudspeakers in the lobby and backstage spaces. Acentech also designed ADA-compliant assistive listening systems for the music hall and renovated theatre space.

The expanded Arts Center opened in 2022, to much acclaim. To quote Principal Architect Peter Reiss, AIA, LEED AP, “Our main goal was to create an inspiring space for music for the Peddie School community. Acentech provided the vital input needed to collaborate and develop the finely tuned acoustical qualities for a variety of rehearsals and performances.”