Orchestra Hall, located at Nicollet Mall

Nicollet Mall

Nicollet Mall is a portion of Nicollet Avenue running through downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Working as a pedestrian and transit mall, it is also an upscale shopping and dining district...

 and 12th Street in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

, United States, is home to the Minnesota Orchestra

Minnesota Orchestra

The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Emil Oberhoffer founded the orchestra as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, and it gave its first performance on November 5 of that year. In 1968 the orchestra changed to its name to the Minnesota Orchestra...

. The Hall was built in 1974 (along with the adjacent Peavey Plaza) and opened for the 1974 concert season. It is a major landmark of the southern portion of the Nicollet Mall and home to many events throughout the year in addition to the Orchestra's home base.

The auditorium seats 2,450, seating 1,500 on the main floor. The remaining 950 seats are placed in three tiers above the main floor, and along the side of the hall. The auditorium is actually a second building separated (for acoustical reasons) by a one inch gap from the "shell" which contains the lobby and offices. The stage is unusual due to the large cube motif in the rear wall, which continues along the ceiling of the hall all the way to the back of the hall. The cubes were added for acoustic reasons (with great success), but turned out to be visually striking as well. The great acoustical design has been attempted to be duplicated in many other concert halls.

Built in 1975, Peavey Plaza was designed by landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg who also designed the Loring Greenway. The plaza which holds an amphitheater and water fountain is considered one of the endangered historic properties in Minnesota.

Originally noted for its Modernist design, chosen to represent an orchestra for everyone, not what was then perceived to be the formal "elitist" designs of the past. The exterior of the building is recognizable by its large, blue ventilation ducts. Their unusual size was chosen to reduce air velocity and hence noise. The lobby area's original "power plant" design was meant to remove tones of class and privilege from the symphony-going experience; it was upgraded in the late 1997 and includes several bars. Expansive windows overlook the street.

In April 2007, it was announced that the hall would be undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation. This renovation had a heavy emphasis on the lobby and patron areas.

On April 9, 2010, plans were revealed for a $40 million renovation and expansion. The lobby and public areas will be doubled in size and the current utilitarian exterior will be replaced with stone and glass. A grand new entrance will also be added. KPBM of Toronto are the architects.

External links

• Orchestra Hall from the Minnesota Orchestra's website