Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center
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The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center is a concert hall located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas (USA). It was designed by architect I.M. Pei and opened in September of 1989.
The Center is named for Morton Meyerson, a close friend and business partner of Ross Perot, who provided $10 million in funds for its construction. It is the current home of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Turtle Creek Chorale, the Dallas Wind Symphony, and the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra. After construction the Meyerson is managed by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs.
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[edit] Design
The exterior of the large pavilion and lobby is circular and constructed of glass and metal supports to contrast with the solid geometric lines of the actual hall. The interior, designed by Russell Johnson's firm, Artec Acoustic Consultants, is in the standard shoebox style and seats 2,062. Acoustical canopies above the hall can be raised or lowered to reshape the auricular properties of the hall. The Meyerson also famously houses the Lay Family Concert Organ, the last Fisk Organ to be worked on by Charles Fisk of the C.B. Fisk company before his death.
The hall was built using the shoebox design, aiming to achieve acoustics performance comparable with the Vienna Musikverein and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.[1][2]
[edit] The Center's basic statistics
The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center has: · 260,000 square feet above ground space · 225,000 square feet below ground space · 35,130 cubic yards of concrete · 30,000 square feet of Italian travertine marble · 22,000 pieces of Indiana limestone · 4,535 organ pipes · 2,062 seats · 918 square panels of African (Makore) cherrywood · 216 square panels of American cherrywood · 211 glass panels (no two alike) comprising the conoid windows · 85 foot high ceiling in the concert hall · 74 concrete reverberation chamber doors, each weighing as much as 2.5 tons · 56 acoustical curtains · 50 restrooms · 4 private suites for meetings, banquets, and recitals
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Donal Henahan,. "The Acoustics of Dallas's New Concert Hall". New York Times, 12 September 1989. Retrieved on August 12, 2006.
- ^ Tapio Lahti and Henrik Möller,. "Concert Hall Acoustics and the Computer". ARK -Finnish Architectural Review, April 1996. Retrieved on August 12, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Meyerson Symphony Center's Official Web Site
- Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Official Web Site
- Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architect and Design firm's official website
- Russell Johnson, the acoustics designer for the concert hall
- QTVR Tour of the Meyerson Symphony Center
- Turtle Creek Chorale's Official Web Site
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- Street map from MapQuest or Google Maps
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image from TerraServer-USA
