Rice University Alice Pratt Brown Hall, The Shepherd School of Music - Alice Pratt Brown Hall, housing Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, includes a 1,000-seat concert hall, 300-seat recital hall, grand organ studio, instrument and voice studios, classrooms and administrative offices. Structural steel framing is utilized in the performance complex to span the large volume spaces. Cast-in-place concrete forms the structure in the classroom, practice and administrative areas. To meet the program requirements for an acoustically sensitive structure, the framing of the 220-foot by 460-foot structure is divided into nine segments, with isolation joints between each segment. This design prevents sound transmission through the structural members.