One day while climbing up to Music Fundamentals, I just had to stop and catch my breath. Weighted down by the supplies I carried on my back, my fingers fumbled around for a bottle of water to quench my thirst as I made the back-breaking journey upward. No cross-country training could fully prepare me for this task and as my eyes peered around, I could see nothing but the dull white of my surroundings. When I reached a new level, my spirits fell when I realized I still had three or so more floors to go. Sound familiar? Welcome to the PMAC.

“An auditorium of ideas,” is how Choate alumni Edward Albee ‘46 described the Paul Mellon Arts Center on the day of its opening in 1972. Today, Choaties are discovering where the PMAC is lacking in elegant design.

As many already know, reaching a classroom involves navigating a labyrinth of hallways or climbing the 5-story staircase. Every few weeks I come across posters on the bland walls with encouraging words like, “Come on...You can do it!” or “If I could do it, you can too!” These words of encouragement bring smiles to faces of many when they realize other students have endured similar hardship.

While I myself am no architect, I sympathize with the designer of the building, I. M. Pei, on some issues like the seemingly endless staircase. But like the bland walls of the PMAC’s hallways, aren’t there some things that could have been improved just a bit?

Take for example the practice rooms on the fifth floor where the walls seem lacking when it comes to keeping other sounds out. Just the other day I was trying to tackle an upbeat song on the piano when from one of the adjacent rooms, the grave serenading of Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique seeped right in.

In addition, students routinely hear a mysterious rumble on the fourth floor. Every morning coming up to Music Fundamentals, I walk past this section where something is vibrating and passing its loud drone into the music classrooms. Every so often it stops, but only to kick back into action within the next half-hour.

I don’t want to be a pessimist here, because with all due respect, I believe I. M. Pei is a very skilled architect. Born in Canton, China, in April 1917, Pei has created an astonishing range of works from the Bank of China to the Louvre’s glass Pyramid in Paris.

So all this makes us ask: What can Choaties do to improve the PMAC experience for students? I’ve found the staircase posters to be extremely helpful, and if the administration allows, students could hang a bulletin board on every level where readers and writers alike can interact with motivational messages that will make the journey to the upper-floors one step easier.

It would definitely be quite a task to transform the PMAC, and luckily we don’t need to. Beyond towering glass walls and state-of-the art equipment, it’s the little things that students do that will make the biggest difference. And who knows? Pei just might head back to the drawing board.