Stanford has a spiffy web site up for the hall, and it certainly looks good, with attractive designs inside and out, with tiered in-the-round seating and, apparently, plenty of circulation space.
The height and the bowed-in panels on the walls remind me of the fixes to Davies Symphony Hall, but it's a very different design team here. The architect is Polshek Partners, with whose work I'm not familiar, and the acoustical designer is Yasuhisa Toyota, who is best known in the United States for his magnificent work on Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Here's hoping they hit this one out of the ballpark. A hall with acoustics equivalent to those of WDCH would be a thing of beauty indeed.
Update: Stanford has a news page about the groundbreaking, complete with video from the ceremony.
The changes in Stanford musical culture, especially after the Music Department moves into an adjoining building, which I understand they're going to do, will be profound. I'm kind of looking forward to this, actually, even though I like Braun and, yes, even Dinky, which is not a bad hall if you know where to sit for what's being performed in it.
ReplyDeleteBraun seems fine, and an appropriate size, for some kinds of events. Dinklespiel - oy. SO DRY.
ReplyDeleteDry can be good. Such wonderful clarity - depending, I emphasize, on where you're sitting.
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