Construction Zone: A new tune

The Rey-Waldstein Building at The Longy School of Music, Cambridge, Mass., originally was a Mediterranean-style mansion built in 1905. It needed renovation and improvements to bring it up-to-date.

The historic elements of the building were restored to meet the standards of the Cambridge Historical Commission. The historic colors of the exterior, painted white many decades ago, were recreated after careful investigation.

The building's interior renovation includes the restoration of public areas and a new basement design. The project restored much of the front desk, made of bamboo, and incorporated modern light fixtures. The basement was redesigned to add more height, to create acoustical isolation from the floors above, and to isolate individual music practice rooms.

The architect added universal accessibility to the front entry and provided two accessible bathrooms on the first floor.

The architect for this project is Gary Wolf Architects, Inc. (Boston).