Jonah Glass

Blewett Hall and the Gaylord Music Library currently sits near the South 40 for both musicians and student residents. (Jonah Glass | Staff Photographer)

The University administration has yet to provide a plan to relocate the 15 practice rooms in Tietjens Hall in the wake of current construction plans to turn the music building on the Danforth Campus into new residential halls for underclassmen. 

Although the destruction of the music buildings was announced in Dec. 2025 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the music department has been in communication with administration since Nov. 2022. Patrick Burke, chair of the Department of Music, stated in an email to people involved with the department that, despite the faculty “fiercely advocating” for their students’ needs, the administration has yet to plan for the current lack of practice rooms. 

“[We’re] trying to make the administration understand just how much use they get and how important they are for music majors, but also students who take classes with us,” Burke said. “It’s students from all the schools of the University.”

Practice rooms in Tietjens Hall are estimated to be used 1,500 times per month by 300 individual students, according to the email Burke sent to the Department of Music. Burke said practice rooms provide a space where students can practice without disrupting their peers and relieve the pressure of rehearsing in the open. 

“Nobody wants to practice in public,” Burke said. “At that point, it becomes a performance of some kind.” 

Burke said he is concerned about enrollment in the music program.

“I’m really worried that if there aren’t enough practice rooms, people might quit,” he said. “If you’re taking a lesson and there’s nowhere to practice … you’re not going to find yourself getting any better.”

Relocation of practice rooms would pose issues for rooms with large stationary instruments. Katie Ritzema, a master’s Musicology student, is concerned about moving larger instruments from practice rooms, including the organ in Tietjens.

“That organ is very old,” she said. “It’s unlikely that that organ would survive being moved to a new location.” 

The relocation process for the rest of the music buildings has also raised concern in students and faculty, especially the transfer of the Gaylord Music Library collection, which, according to WashU’s Department of Music website, holds more than 110,500 books, scores, and periodicals, over 47,000 recordings, and nearly 4,700 microforms. 

Music Librarian Brad Short says that the transfer process has been going smoothly. The Library has already moved some smaller collections, including microfilm and VHS tapes, to the West Campus.

“There are an enormous number of details involved in moving a library collection, so the support that we have had in the Music Library to make this a painless move has been extraordinary,” Short said.

Burke said the administration is actively working with faculty to find a solution.

“I think we are having real conversations about their importance and the places that they can go,” he said. “I definitely wanted students to weigh in, to underline how important they are, but it’s not like the administration doesn’t know about the problem, and I do think there are people working to solve it.”