Photo Illustration by Ellie Sullivan
A student plays piano inside of a practice room in the basement of Phillips Hall.
Members of GW’s music program are continuing to report temperature fluctuations in Phillips Hall that have disrupted classes and damaged instruments amid a three-year HVAC overhaul in the building.
Seven faculty, staff and students said the building’s basement, which houses Corcoran School of the Arts & Design’s music program, has faced temperature irregularities for years that range between 40 and 90 degrees and render instruments off-key. Music department faculty and staff said the temperature has dipped into the frigid end of the spectrum this winter, with temperatures hovering between 45 and 50 degrees forcing some to bundle up and use space heaters to work comfortably.
Mara Sherman, the department’s music program administrator, said their office has been without heat since before Thanksgiving, and the HVAC unit in their office blew 40-degree air on Jan. 8 when they returned to campus this semester. Sherman said they submitted 19 FixIt requests about the basement’s temperature in 2024, but temperature issues persisted this year.
Sherman said they underwent surgery to correct a deformity on their foot over the summer, which made it more sensitive and reduced blood flow in the cold. Sherman said that without two layers of wool socks, their foot turns “periwinkle” and becomes uncomfortable. They said for the past few weeks they’ve been wearing a parka, a winter hat and a wool blanket to keep warm while working, as their position does not permit them to work from home.
“I sort of worry about the long-term effects on my feet,” Sherman said.
Sherman said the lack of heat is damaging the more than 20 pianos in the Phillips basement because when the temperature changes by more than 2 degrees, pianos go out of tune by a quarter step. They said the extreme temperatures mean pianos are going multiple notes out of tune, stretching the strings inside the piano.
The temperature concerns echoed those expressed by more than a dozen students in April 2023, who said hot practice rooms were damaging Phillips Hall’s pianos and requested that GW employees conduct more frequent checks of the instruments for tuning. At the time, the chair of the music program said Phillips, Smith and Rome halls have had “serious” issues with maintaining “consistent temperatures” and that the department has devoted a “significant” portion of its budget to maintaining the pianos in Phillips.
Sherman said they’ve seen the Phillips basement hit temperatures in the 80s and 90s since starting at GW in September 2023. Student flutists have also complained in the past few weeks that it’s been difficult to practice their instruments because their fingers are so cold, Sherman said.
“Our faculty and our students are all very excellent artists and musicians, and it’s just a shame that they have to make art under these conditions,” Sherman said.
University spokesperson Julia Metjian said the Academic Center, which houses Phillips, Rome and Smith halls, is in the second year of a three-year HVAC improvement project, which includes replacing major pieces of equipment like the chiller, boilers and air handling units.
Officials first upgraded the air conditioning system in the Academic Center complex in March, but a University spokesperson declined to say at the time why the repairs were occurring.
Metjian said that as officials move into the third phase of the project, they have found that the smaller in-room HVAC units in offices and classrooms are underperforming or failing. She added that HVAC control replacements are set to finish this spring, which “further enable” facilities staff to receive real-time updates on building HVAC operations.
“When these issues are identified, the Facilities team, in conjunction with our general contractor, is working to address issues in a timely manner,” Metjian said in an email.
Junior Abhinav Ranganathan, a music student who said he spends between 17 and 30 hours a week in the Phillips basement, said despite the instruments’ high quality, they are not properly cared for because they are stored in rooms that are not temperature controlled.
“In every single one of the practice rooms in the music department, it is rare that I find a piano in tune,” he said.
The temperature fluctuation also interrupts lectures, Ranganathan said. He said one of his professors in September paused their lecture to ask all students to submit a FixIt request because the room was so hot. Ranganathan said that after submitting that request in late September, he did not get a response from FixIt until mid-November.
Heather Stebbins, an assistant professor of music, said her office in the Phillips basement had been without heat and airconditioning since she started at GW in 2019, but officials fixed the heater on Tuesday. She said the temperature in her office had been in the 40s during the winter and that she and other faculty submitted “as many [FixIt] tickets as possible.”
“I’m super thankful that Facilities was able to get it fixed because it’s been very, very cold recently,” Stebbins said.
Stebbins said she’s unable to work in her office when it’s in the 50s or lower and that it’s “miserable” when students need to come for a one-on-one meeting because they’re hovering around a small space heater to keep warm. Stebbins said professors’ use of space heaters has often tripped circuits and creates a need to “constantly” flip the fuses.
“It really takes away from the learning environment,” Stebbins said.
Senior Matthew Brooks, the director of the Foghorns Pep Band and a GW Bands teaching assistant, said he has seen these temperatures fluctuate during all four years he’s been at the University. B120, the large classroom that is also used for band rehearsal, is the room with the most extreme temperatures, Brooks said.
“When the faculty get here in the morning and they walk into B120 and it’s 50 degrees or below, or like 80 degrees or above, the extreme fluctuations, they will get in contact with Facilities and the technicians will come look at it, but it shouldn’t have to be that way,” Brooks said.
Brooks said the lack of proper temperature control is partly due to the building being “really old,” evidenced by the gold metal boxes for disposing cigarette butts in the hallways. The Academic Center opened in September 1982.
“I know the instruments are supposed to be at a particular temperature, and humidity matters as well,” Brooks said.
Senior Olivia Emerson, the vice president of GW Bands, said one of her clarinet’s rings fell off after winter break because it was stored in the locker room that was too hot, an occurrence that she said has also happened to another clarinet player. They had to glue the rings back on before playing, she said.
She said there is a consensus among music department members that everyone has “no idea” what the Phillips basement temperature will be on any given day. She said that during Foghorns’ rehearsals, the door always needs to be propped open because the room is hot and playing for more than an hour causes people to start sweating.
She said one of her peers keeps a sweatshirt stored in the band office at all times in case it’s too cold. Emerson said she’s also seen people leave rehearsals to go change clothing because of hot temperatures.
“It would be so hot, people would go home and change into shorts and a tank top because we were in there for hours playing,” Emerson said.