Community MusicWorks: A Healthy, Low-Embodied Carbon Center for Music

Community MusicWorks (CMW) is an organization that has been serving Providence’s West End, South Side, Elmwood, and Olneyville communities for 25 years. Their mission is to create “cohesive community through music education that transforms the lives of children, families, and musicians.”  The goal of the new building is to transition from being a program to becoming a community center. 

CMW invited the architectural firm 3SIX0 to design the Community MusicWorks Center and Healthy Materials Lab to guide the building to be a healthier place for the community. From the beginning, the project involved a collaborative process between 3SIX0 architects HML and CMW. Sustainability in this project is understood on multiple levels.

In 2017 CMW purchased an empty lot at 1326 Westminster Street, one block from its original storefront, to create a “hub for community performance” a “home for young musicians” and a “center for developing practice”. Offering gateway opportunities for youth, this is a place where students will gather, make music, andbuild connections. The organization understands itself as a catalyst for community development, a space that connects musical life to neighborhood culture.

“From the start, we knew the architectural goals should align with CMW’s. At its core was the understanding that community building was something that came from thinking long term, understanding the symbiosis between the organization and its students and families, and the importance of paying attention, listening, and allowing space for the unanticipated. We hope to provide something that the community could call “home.” These values and goals led directly to the question of sustainability: sustaining and nourishing community means sustaining and thinking through the lifecycle and community/environmental consequences of every material and product.” - 3SIX0 architects

Healthy Materials Lab has been working with 3SIX0 and CMW to include material health into their new center’s ethos and physical building. Since the inception of the project, HML has hosted educational presentations for 3SIX0 architects, Pezzuco Construction (General Contractor), Project Manager, and CMW’s Leadership Team and Board of Directors.

HML initially identified a Material Health Guiding Framework for the project, which maps environmental toxics in surrounding communities whose residents will frequent the space. The result is a comprehensive guideline summarizing local toxics and demographic information, suggestions of chemical groups that should be avoided, and selective strategies for healthier building.

“The building will be a pioneering, carbon sequestering wood structure, built with cross-laminated timber floors (CLT) and wooden glue-laminated beams and columns. Other ecological strategies include siting and orientation— taking advantage of the southern exposure for solar gain, natural lighting, and a thermally efficient building envelope. The life cycle and extraction/disposal environmental and health costs of all materials used in the new building guide the selection of materials and finishes.” -Chris Bardt + Kyna Leski, Principals of 3SIX0 architects

“The material goals [for the building] became inseparable from the sustainability and energy goals, everything is tied together. When addressing materials, an important, perhaps the most important goal was to select materials which did the least harm to the environment, to the building’s community and its inhabitants and to the populations impacted by the extraction, processing and disposal inherent to building materials.” - 3SIX0 Architects  

The collaborative process has allowed all teams to communicate regularly, evaluate requirements for specific product groups, and identify healthier materials and design principles to be implemented. Throughout the design process, HML has offered seminars to new team members to ensure that every aspect of the project —from design to construction to maintenance—  contributes to the Material Health goals of the center.  

“We have learned a ton. A primary takeaway is becoming mindful of the lifecycle of every material. Asking questions like: how might this have been manufactured and where? How far did it have to travel to come to us? What will be the lifespan of the material, and how would disposal or reuse work? This is a fundamental change from thinking primarily about what is affordable today and how something looks and works.” - CMW leadership team 

Construction is well underway and the building is scheduled to open in early Fall 2024. HML is guiding the selection of furniture, and the owners are mindful of health in their selection of cleaning and maintenance products once the building opens. 

Check back often for project updates!