It may not be as flashy as the Walt Disney Concert Hall Frank Gehry designed in Los Angeles, but the recently opened Pierre Boulez Saal concert hall in Berlin still brings a unique aesthetic and experience to the 682 listeners that can attend a concert there.
The design of the Pierre Boulez Saal eliminates the stage found in most concert halls, separating the musicians from the audience, and instead, employs the use of an oval to create one connected community. The oval allows for a much more intimate experience. It also allows the music to reverberate for slightly longer, says Daniel Barenboim in a New York Times interview, which leads to a more enjoyable experience for the listeners.
The original idea for the oval space came from an initial sketch Gehry showed to Barenboim. Barenboim loved the idea for a non-traditional concert hall and encouraged Gehry to pursue this design, according to the Pierre Boulez Saal’s official website.
Yasuhisa Toyota, a globally acclaimed acoustician, worked with Gehry to create the acoustics of the hall. Gehry and Toyota both donated their work as a gift in appreciation of what the project represented.
The Pierre Boulez Saal resides in the Barenboim-Said Akademie building, nestled into the cultural and historical center of Berlin. In addition to the revamped Pierre Boulez Saal, the building renovation adds 21 rehearsal rooms, an auditorium, a library, offices, and other ancillary space to fill the 6,500 sm.
On Saturday, March 4, the concert hall officially opened its doors for the first time to host four-hour concert by the Boulez Ensemble.
Related Stories
| Jan 4, 2011
An official bargain, White House loses $79 million in property value
One of the most famous office buildings in the world—and the official the residence of the President of the United States—is now worth only $251.6 million. At the top of the housing boom, the 132-room complex was valued at $331.5 million (still sounds like a bargain), according to Zillow, the online real estate marketplace. That reflects a decline in property value of about 24%.
| Dec 17, 2010
Sam Houston State arts programs expand into new performance center
Theater, music, and dance programs at Sam Houston State University have a new venue in the 101,945-sf, $38.5 million James and Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Center. WHR Architects, Houston, designed the new center to connect two existing buildings at the Huntsville, Texas, campus.
| Nov 3, 2010
Park’s green education center a lesson in sustainability
The new Cantigny Outdoor Education Center, located within the 500-acre Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Ill., earned LEED Silver. Designed by DLA Architects, the 3,100-sf multipurpose center will serve patrons of the park’s golf courses, museums, and display garden, one of the largest such gardens in the Midwest.
| Oct 13, 2010
Biloxi’s convention center bigger, better after Katrina
The Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center in Biloxi is once again open for business following a renovation and expansion necessitated by Hurricane Katrina.
| Oct 13, 2010
Community center under way in NYC seeks LEED Platinum
A curving, 550-foot-long glass arcade dubbed the “Wall of Light” is the standout architectural and sustainable feature of the Battery Park City Community Center, a 60,000-sf complex located in a two-tower residential Lower Manhattan complex. Hanrahan Meyers Architects designed the glass arcade to act as a passive energy system, bringing natural light into all interior spaces.
| Oct 13, 2010
Bookworms in Silver Spring getting new library
The residents of Silver Spring, Md., will soon have a new 112,000-sf library. The project is aiming for LEED Silver certification.
| Oct 12, 2010
Holton Career and Resource Center, Durham, N.C.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Special Recognition. Early in the current decade, violence within the community of Northeast Central Durham, N.C., escalated to the point where school safety officers at Holton Junior High School feared for their own safety. The school eventually closed and the property sat vacant for five years.
| Oct 12, 2010
Richmond CenterStage, Richmond, Va.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Bronze Award. The Richmond CenterStage opened in 1928 in the Virginia capital as a grand movie palace named Loew’s Theatre. It was reinvented in 1983 as a performing arts center known as Carpenter Theatre and hobbled along until 2004, when the crumbling venue was mercifully shuttered.
| Oct 12, 2010
Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Gartner Auditorium was originally designed by Marcel Breuer and completed, in 1971, as part of his Education Wing at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Despite that lofty provenance, the Gartner was never a perfect music venue.
| Sep 13, 2010
Second Time Around
A Building Team preserves the historic facade of a Broadway theater en route to creating the first green playhouse on the Great White Way.