Westmount Charter School, Music & Art Room

Located in the old Sir William Van Horne Calgary Board of Education (CBE) building — which was closed in 2010 — the Westmount Charter School moved in and brought new life into the building through a series of renovations. The latest of which included an updated art room and the expansion of the music room. As with most older schools, there was the challenge of creating new, bright, and inviting spaces from older, darker spaces. In the art room, we utilized a suspended LED lighting solution to complement the original coffered ceiling, which was painted white. The result is a room that feels twice as large as it really is. In the music room, we coordinated the lighting with the architectural beams in the space, creating parallel runs of light. Outside of the new music room, we ran a linear product up the length of the double-storey side light. The height of the new music room, combined with the lighting, gave the space a sense of grandeur. All new electrical distribution was added in both spaces, with new power outlets provided in locations to allow for maximum flexibility of the spaces. All of our tricks were used to bring new power outlets into the space in an intentional way: floor-mounted, surface raceway systems, and cord reels all brought power to where it needed to be.