DJC Showcase: Benaroya Hall

Benaroya Hall

July 3, 1998

The Seattle Symphony will soon have a home of its own.

For over nine decades, the symphony has shared a number of venues, none specifically designed to meet the highest acoustical standards of concert music.

Benaroya hall

The Benaroya family helped make Seattle Symphony's dream of a new home a reality.
Photo by Ben Minnick

But that all ends Sept. 12 when the $118 million Benaroya Hall opens in downtown Seattle with the symphony's music director, Gerard Schwarz, conducting and famed soprano Jessye Norman as the featured soloist.

The DJC has put together a special section that takes a closer look at the design and construction of this new facility. With the acoustic demands of the building and the high profile of the project in Seattle's downtown landscape created some interesting demands on the project team. The result, after years of planning and construction, is a state of the art facility that Seattlites will enjoy for years to come.


	Symphony set to move into new downtown home For over nine decades, the symphony has shared a number of venues, none specifically designed to meet the highest acoustical standards of concert music. But that all ends Sept. 12.

	Building for that perfect sound LMN Architects and acoustical consultant Cyril M. Harris are combining the shoe box design of Benaroya Hall's auditorium with state-of-the-art materials to achieve maximum acoustical warmth and balance.

	Construction team used software to coordinate work on Benaroya The program let everyone on the team communicate quickly and accurately throughout the project. The paper trail it created will serve as the legal record should claims or litigation occur.

	The Garden of Remembrance When it became clear that the Seattle Symphony might have difficulty raising sufficient funds to build the new concert hall and landscape the entire block, Priscilla "Patsy" Bullitt Collins proposed creating a memorial garden in one of the few unshadowed spots left in downtown Seattle.