At CalArts, a Wild Beast to Tame Music

Craig Hodgetts and Ming Fung designed a multi-use music pavilion for the California Institute of the Arts. (Scott Groller photos)

A curious and compelling new building called the Wild Beast has opened its big sliding door at the California Institute of the Arts, where it will serve the Herb Alpert School of Music as a classroom, rehearsal space, 140-seat recital hall, and stage for performances during which up to 1,000 people listen on the lawn outside.

The 3,200-square-foot structure, designed by Hodgetts+Fung, cost $4-million. It takes its name from an essay by the composer Morton Feldman "about the illusive space in a work of art between surface and subject where meaning lives," according to a CalArts news release.

The interior is covered with acoustical panels. When the rolling door is opened, "sound is projected from the building's curved back wall and focused by front windows that pivot to become acoustic awnings above the stage," the news release says.