By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Rider University is moving ahead with plan to construct an 11,790-square-foot academic building that would provide classrooms and performing space for its Westminster Choir College.
Drawings and other documents were submitted last month to the Princeton Planning office, although the school is exempt from having to get Princeton Planning Board approval for the project based on zoning regulations.
The board, however, will do a concept or courtesy review of the proposal, although there was no date this week for when that will occur.
The building, located in a part of the 23-acre campus that’s made up of lawn and trees, would connect to the existing playhouse. Documents call for a 1,492 square foot addition to the playhouse and a 1,958 square foot general services building.
The project, a way to address space needs at Westminster, is in keeping with was proposed in the college’s 2012 master plan. In the document, Rider said classroom and rehearsal space do not meet “existing needs.”
”At Westminster, 25-35 person classrooms are in the highest demand. The registrar regularly encounters scheduling conflicts between classrooms and rehearsal spaces of this size,” the document said. Furthermore, the “aesthetics, acoustics and configurations of existing classrooms also limit music programs and adversely impact Westminster’s ability to recruit and retain students and faculty.”
The proposed building would address those “shortcomings” by providing three classrooms and a performance space to accommodate up to 200 people. The university said the project would have “no additional impact” on local traffic.
The $7.5 million project will be paid in part with a $3 million gift from the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, named after a billionaire businessman from Pittsburgh, whose wife, Elsie, graduated from the Choir College.
The music school traces its roots to 1920 when the Westminster Choir was started in Dayton, Ohio. From there, it evolved into the Westminster Choir College moving to Ithaca, N.Y., before coming to Princeton on Walnut Lane. It’s been a part of Rider since 1992.
Today Westminster has 450 students enrolled in its various undergraduate and master’s degree programs. Students come from 40 states and 18 countries, according to information on the college’s website.

