Construction is on track for a Fall 2009 opening of the new John J. Cali School of Music building. It will include the 250-seat Jed Leshowitz Recital Hall, teaching studios, music practice and rehearsal rooms, and faculty offices. The plans created by architects from RMJM Hillier use an existing 1928 Spanish Mission Style building as the basis for their renovation and expansion.

The new design includes a new 23,000-square-foot, two-story addition to the original 5-story, 29,000-square-foot structure, for a total of 52,000 square feet. The need for superior acoustics required the design team to overcome several challenges posed by the building’s existing tight floor-to-floor heights and older mechanical systems. Practice rooms and teaching studios are designed as a “box within a box” for acoustic isolation from other rooms. Innovative HVAC design accommodates the low floor-to-floor height (9’8”) of the existing building for superior soundproofing and optimal humidity and temperature control.

Exterior renovations to the building reorient the main entrance to face College Avenue, a major thoroughfare on campus, rather than the quadrangle, where the original entry was located. The new façade offers a picturesque interpretation of the original Spanish Mission Style and provides a formal gateway to the campus.

In addition to providing an excellent facility, the architects worked to achieve a rating under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Sustainable Design Rating System.

 The MSU Board of Trustees approved the establishment of the Cali School of Music, the first School of Music at a New Jersey university, on July 20, 2006. The new building honors the generous support of the John J. Cali family whose $5 million gift will be largely used to provide scholarships to School of Music students with the balance devoted to establishing a full time professorship. Mr. Cali is a longtime resident of Montclair, New Jersey and a talented musician in his own right who earned his way through college by playing the saxophone in swing and jazz bands. He is one of New Jersey's most prominent real estate industry leaders who co-founded Cali Associates in 1949 with his brother Angelo Cali and childhood friend Edward Leshowitz (both Angelo Cali and Edward Leshowitz are Montclair State graduates).

 (Renderings created by Hillier Architects.)