An Open House

The Willow Grove Branch draws ever closer to being a real building, with not only a roof, but also fully enclosed walls nearly ready to keep out the elements.

Not all of the elements, mind you, as you can see below. Of course at this point, the water is little more than a nuisance, and it looks much deeper than it is, given the extraordinarily smooth surface on which it sits. It almost seems like a reflecting pool.

As you can see, earlier this month aluminum studs were affixed to the frame, followed shortly by a layer of insulated sheathing.

If you live in the Willow Grove or Jenkintown area, be sure to stop by the Jenkintown Branch of the School on June 5 between 10am-1pm. As part of the School-wide Open House, we'll have on display a timeline of pictures from the Willow Grove construction project.

Of course, all six branches will be hosting Open Houses that weekend, and we encourage you to visit your local branch to check out the festivities. If you're already attending regular lessons that day, bring along a friend who's interested in music lessons. It's a great way to share your love of music. Contact your local branch to learn more about specific activities.

And as always, an expanded gallery of Willow Grove images is posted at Facebook. Head over there now to see photos of the under-construction stairwells.

The Beginnings Stages of a Stage

In late April, workers poured the concrete that will form the basis of the Monroe Levin & Cameron McGraw stage in the Leonard Mellman Recital Hall. Of course, it's far from finished, and it will certainly get steps, layers of subflooring and wood to complete the job.

In fact, the entire first floor received a layer of cement shortly after the stage dried.

You'll notice layers of gravel, plastic sheeting and mesh that create a base for the cement to adhere to.

On the second and third floors, you can see that the base looked a bit more complicated because it was built on a platform, rather than the solid ground.



The cement truck that makes all this possible actually pulls up just outside the wall of the building, but a small trolley is used to bring the cement inside.

As always, click over to Facebook to see an expanded gallery of photos from this phase of contstruction.